Best Friends
by emichii
Summary: Tai and Sora are best friends. But now, 14-yr-old Tai notices that Sora is not just the scruffy tomboy she always seemed to be, and he's not so sure if he can think of her as just a best friend anymore.
1. But she's my best friend!

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.

**Yep, it's another taiora fanfic by emichii…**

**I hope you all enjoy! Please read and review! **

**Best Friends**

**Chapter 1- But she's my best friend!! **

Tai was out on the soccer field. The sun was high in the sky, the weather was beautiful, and there was a refreshing breeze in the air. He was feeling good as he yelled out to his teammates for the ball.

It was a good game. Yeah, it was good because they were totally kicking the other team's ass into the goal and beyond! The crowd was going wild as Tai ran down the green field, with the ball at his feet, expertly maneuvering past the defenders and towards the goal.

Suddenly, he noticed somebody's feet in front of him. There was someone right in his path. Tai frowned, and immediately pushed the ball behind him, and shot it away to another teammate. Tai side-stepped the opponent and ran forward again, yelling for the ball.

The crowd in the stands cheered. They were all dressed in the colours of Tai's teams, everyone standing on their feet, cheering and waving. Tai felt his confidence soar, as the captain of his team, and ran forwards. The team-mate sent a huge kick at the ball, making the soccer ball soar up and towards him, a huge kick.

There were girls standing at the front of the stands and they were practically in tears as they screamed for their hero to get the ball. A grin spread wide across Tai's face as he leapt up in the air to head it.

Then, time seemed to slow. Tai rose in the air, determination on his face as the soccer ball fell closer, and closer to his head.

"_Tai!!" _

He knew he had it! It was right there, in the perfect position, to head the ball straight into the goal.

"_TAI!!" _

CLUNK!!

Ouch. That was not a soccer ball.

What the heck??

Tai blinked open his eyes and sat up, abruptly. A hard black metal object fell from his forehead and onto his bed. Tai groaned and rubbed his head. He squinted at the offending alarm clock, blinking its bright red numbers at him. He couldn't make out what the numbers said, perhaps because the clock was upside-down.

"TAI!!"

Tai jolted. Next to him, beside his bed stood his little sister, Kari, with an absolutely ferocious look on her face.

Tai looked up sheepishly at his sister. "Hey, Sis. Whassup?"

Kari yanked the alarm clock off Tai's bed angrily. "What do you mean, 'whassup'?? You're late, Tai!! Your alarm went off over half an hour ago!! I've been trying to wake you!!"

Tai frowned. His head was still not quite awake, and he was unable to take in all this information. He glanced at the clock in Kari's hands. It read 8.35am.

Tai yelled out a very rude word and leapt out of bed.

Kari stood there, looking very disapproving of her older brother, while Tai slammed open his closet and began searching for his school uniform, while chucking out various clothes onto the floor.

Tai hurriedly pulled on his school uniform, threw on his wrinkled green school blazer and rushed out his bedroom door, grabbing his school bag as he went. He hastily ran a hand through his messy brown hair and critically threw a look at the mirror as he passed by.

Crashing into the kitchen, his mum was sitting at the table, calmly buttering a piece of toast.

"Mum, I'm gonna be late!" Tai cried as he put on his shoes.

"Yes, I know, Tai." Mrs Kamiya finished buttering the piece of toast and passed it to Tai, who shoved it into his mouth and sprinted down the hallway.

"Tthnnks, Mm!" He mumbled as he went.

"You better apologize to her when you get out there!" called Kari from the kitchen.

"What?" Tai yelled, unlatching the front door.

"SORA CAME OVER TO WALK TO SCHOOL WITH YOU!!" Kari yelled.

"WHAT?" Tai yelled in reply, yanking open the door and almost dropping the toast as he went. "Oh crap!"

He banged the door closed behind him, and sure enough, standing outside the Kamiya apartment was Sora Takenouchi. She had been leaning against the wall, a small frown on her face as she looked at her watch. She looked up as he burst out, panting and out of breath.

"…Sora!" Tai gasped. "I'm sorry you had to wait so long! I… I woke up late! You could've just gone ahead without me!!"

Sora grinned. "Nah, it's all right! I couldn't leave my dim-witted best friend behind!"

Tai beamed back at her, chest heaving up and down from exhaustion.

She gave a little laugh and started to run down the corridor towards the elevator. "Hurry up, Tai! Or we'll be even later!!"

Tai shoved the rest of the toast into his mouth and nodded urgently, running after his best friend.

---

Tai was in a pretty cheerful mood that afternoon. He grabbed his soccer gear bag and slung it over his shoulders; he was laughing and conversing with his friends, excited about the end of the school day and looking forward to soccer training.

Tai banged the locker door shut and walked through the crowded hallway with his friends, oblivious to the groups of girls huddled along the sides of the corridors, sneaking glances at him and flushing bright pink.

He scratched his head, running his fingers absentmindedly through his thick chocolate brown hair. He pulled a face as he headed towards the changeroom. He'd be happy to get out of his prim school uniform and into his soccer clothes. Tai smiled goofily to himself amidst the noise and bustle of the ending school day around him.

The fourteen-year-old looked up at the bright blue sky up ahead and grinned happily before breaking into a run, his soccer gear bag swinging back and forth from his shoulder. He had a feeling it was gonna be a good day.

---

"Hey Tai!" One of his soccer mates was walking towards him, throwing a soccer ball up in the air and catching it again.

"Hey," he greeted him. They stood and waited on the edge of the field, for the rest of the players to get here. A few more of Tai's friends joined them; some of them seemed a bit fidgety as he stood there.

Tai was a little confused.

He noticed that there was a group of girls walking past, giggling and chattering away excitedly. Tai gave a little shudder. He, for one, was not a fan of giggling girls. It was a bit… creepy.

They were quite a few of them. Tai was not impressed. Why did they travel in such large groups? He was impatient, waiting for them to pass by so that they could start their soccer training.

"Oi Tai!" A team-mate nudged him, "Look over there!"

"What?" Tai impatiently glanced over to where his friend was pointing. He was pointing at part of the throng of girls, at the red-haired girl with a bag slung over one shoulder, talking animatedly with a pink-haired girl and making some of her other friends giggle loudly.

Tai frowned.

"Her! Sora Takenouchi!" Tai's friend urged.

"What about her?" Tai asked bluntly. Then he was suddenly curious and even wary, wondering what business his friend wanted with his best friend.

Tai's friend put on a look of shock horror. "What do you mean 'what about her'? She's gorgeous!!"

Suddenly, Tai felt himself tense. He practically spat out the words, he couldn't help it, he was defensive now, protective of his best friend. "What?" He almost snarled.

Tai's friend looked cautious. Then he gave a slight chuckle and jokingly punched Tai lightly in the shoulder. "Open your eyes, mate! Takenouchi is amazing!"

He then launched into a long explanation of why she was so, detailing every thing from the way she smiled to the sound of her voice to the way she packed up books after class and straightened them against the desk.

Tai scowled, not really listening to the continuous babble of words.

The pack of girls was at last moving of the oval and around the corner, almost out of view. Tai picked up the soccer ball at his feet and started to head out onto the field, when he unconsciously caught a glimpse of her.

His heart stopped.

And he wondered how come he had never noticed before.

She was very pretty, she was laughing with her friends, and he could hear her laughter from here. She had deep red eyes and short red-brown hair, still in the same style as she always had. Of course, she no longer permanently wore a hat, but…

Tai was shocked.

She had long legs, but she looked comfortable with them, she'd grown into them. Whereas Tai, he was currently stuck in that very lanky stage where all his limbs seemed too long and clumsy.

And he knew, somewhere in the corner of his mind, that this was still his best friend, this was still Sora. This was Sora from just this morning! He'd seen her and she'd been exactly the same this morning. And the day before that. And the day before that.

But he'd seen her so many times; he'd spent so much time with her! How could he have been by her side all this time, and never really… never really _see _her?

Because maybe… he felt a flicker of shame. Here she was, surrounded by her girlfriends… Maybe he had never thought of her as a girl before.

She'd just been Sora. Good old Sora. Sora, who wasn't afraid to get messy or wet and would climb trees with him or play soccer with him in the rain. She was unlike the other girls, unlike Mimi, who fussed over her nails and her clothes and her hair.

She hadn't been afraid to laugh out loud when something was funny, she was perfectly comfortable in scruffy old shorts and T-shirts.

'cause she had been a tomboy.

And before Tai knew what was happening, all he could hear was his own heart is his chest beating so loudly it was drowning out everything else.

For all he knew, Sora and her friends were already gone and probably were far away by now and he was probably just standing there dumbstruck in the middle of the soccer field, looking like a moron while all his friends and teammates wondered what on earth was wrong with him, while he still didn't know what was going on, didn't know what had happened, didn't know…

And Tai realized what had changed with Sora. It had probably happened a while ago, he'd just never noticed.

She'd grown up. Into a stunningly beautiful teenage girl.

"Tai?"

Someone was calling his name.

Tai blinked. He had only froze for a fraction of a second, and he sighed inwardly, thank goodness, he couldn't let anyone know what had just rushed through his head just then. The soccer team was noisily making their way slowly on to the field, messing around and shoving their friends around, acting like teenage boys basically.

But at the sound of his name being called out by one of his friends, a few of the girls who were just moving off the field, turned around. It was Sora, Mimi and another girl who he didn't recognize.

"Tai! Geez, dude, what's with you? Zoning out just like that! Come on, man! Let's go!!"

Tai felt another one of his teammates playfully whack him over the head. "Clueless as ever, Kamiya!"

Tai pulled a face as he defended his head. "Aw shut up!"

As Tai followed his team out onto the field, he couldn't help turning his head to catch a glimpse of Sora and her friends before they left. To his shock, Sora was also looking back at him, trailing behind her other friends. No doubt she had seen the zoning-out stunt from before and was laughing at him. He didn't recognize the long-haired girl beside Sora that was clinging to her arm shyly, but it didn't matter.

All he saw was Sora looking back and meeting his eyes, grinning at him. Usually, he would have returned the smile, but he'd never noticed before… how… how incredibly cute her smile was.

Horrified, Tai looked away from her and ran to catch up with his team.

As he stood there, just one of the soccer players, camouflaged with the others, even then his heart could not stop pumping out of his chest.

He felt weak at the knees, absolutely flabbergasted, his head seemed to be spinning, he felt light-headed and completely confused. The worst thing was all he could hear was the ever-increasing beat of his heart. He tired to take a deep steady breath.

His friend's words came back to him.

"_What do you mean 'what about her'? She's gorgeous!!" _

Tai tried to calm down, but he felt positively delirious. _But… but, no way, she's… she's just Sora! _

"_Open your eyes, mate! Takenouchi is amazing!" _

Tai shook his head very hard, to the stares of the people around her. _This is ridiculous! This can't be happening!! Impossible!!_

But he imagined Sora smiling at him again, that adorable smile… and his heart leapt.

Tai's face was flaming hot. He was absolutely horrified. He was astounded at the way his heart was pumping, at how warm his face was. He was confused and staggered by how much Sora had changed, and at the same time she was exactly the same as she had been in the last few weeks!

He was already fetching a lot of strange stares from his teammates.

He had never looked at Sora that way. Never really felt attracted to her like that.

Tai put a hand over his mouth as something even worse came through his mind. And he screamed out, in his mind, absolutely bewildered and completely horrified at what had happened, all the while, his face so hot it was positively smoking.

And he screamed out in his mind, in his inner turmoil of denial and confusion.

_BUT SHE'S MY BEST FRIEND!! _

**End of chapter 1! And yeah, this is my brand-new taiora fanfiction. Yes, I know this first chapter seems a bit similar to ****Outta Control****, doesn't it? Haha! Anyway, I have big plans for this story, it's going to more light-hearted and good-humored I think. And for the purposes of this plot, Tai and his friends are younger than in the other stories. He's 14, in case you missed that. Well, I hope you enjoyed it! ^_^ Please review!! **


	2. I am not Jealous! Just Possessive!

**Thanks for all the reviews, everybody! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter!! Sorry for the very long wait! Anyway, here's chapter 2! Please enjoy! ^_^ emichii.**

Tai had known Sora for as long as he could remember. They had grown up together, spent just about every day together, acted like stupid little kids together, everything…

But how can you possibly spend so much time with someone else without really _seeing _them?

**Chapter 2- I am not jealous!! Just possessive!! **

Tai was feeling kind of miserable.

The weather was grey and dreary and he had loads of homework to do. But instead, he was lying on his bed, on his back, pondering life's miseries with his bedroom ceiling.

_I mean, come on!! This is ridiculous! _Tai grumbled as he rolled around onto his stomach and glared down at the floor. _She's my friend- my childhood friend- my BEST FRIEND!! _

They'd gone through so much together! They went to the same school; both went to that weird summer camp, ended up in a different dimension, spent that time in the Digital World together, they were just friends, yeah?

Tai slowly sat up, his brown eyes serious. Surely, it had just been a trick of the eyes or something! He saw Sora everyday at school; she couldn't have just changed like that! She was still Sora!

He concentrated hard, trying to work out when it had all started, when this horrible disaster had reared up its ugly head.

But actually, he'd worked it out. Sure, he may have been the dim-witted and clueless Taichi Kamiya, but he could put two and two together. It wasn't Sora who had changed. It was _him._

'cause people don't just grow up in the space of two seconds. It had probably been gradual, which was why he'd never noticed it till now. Sora had grown up.

Tai found his heart pounding away and his face heating up. He covered his mouth with a hand, still trying to get over the shock of yesterday.

He'd finally realized. Poor old dense Tai…

She wasn't just the rowdy tomboy best friend anymore. Sora was a beautiful teenage girl.

---

Tai glared over the top of his textbook with a look that could kill.

Sora was sitting across on the other side of the classroom. He wasn't glaring at her, of course not! But that… _that guy_!

There was a boy sitting at the desk in front of Sora Takenouchi. He had turned around on his seat to face here, and sat there, swinging back and forth, talking enthusiastically to her. Sora had a bit of a bewildered expression on her face at first but then laughed.

Tai felt his fingers tighten over the pages of his maths textbook so that the paper crinkled. His eyes were narrowed like slits as he stared across the classroom.

He grit his teeth and shot death glares across at the unsuspecting boy. _DIE! DIE! DIE!! _He seethed.

Suddenly Sora happened to raise her head and look across the classroom and met his eyes. Tai immediately changed his facial expression to one of absolute pleasantness.

The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled a small smile back at him before turning back to the boy in front of her. Tai went back to chanting death curses at the boy.

"…Tai?"

Tai looked up to see Izzy standing next to him, trusty laptop in hand as usual. Izzy had both eyebrows raised so high there were almost touching his hairline.

"Why, hello Izzy!" Tai smiled politely.

"…what's with you, Tai?" Izzy wondered.

"What are you talking about, man? I'm completely fine!!" Tai kept smiling as he turned his head back in Sora's direction, pulled a most hideous face and turned back towards Izzy, smiling as wide as ever.

Izzy's face distorted with disbelief.

"Do you… think… mmhm sm kkka… t'be… hm…" Tai mumbled.

"What?" Izzy frowned. He looked down at his good friend, who was now staring rather depressingly at his textbook, his knuckles turning white from how hard he was clutching it.

Izzy looked at Tai and then towards Sora, where Tai had been repeatedly staring at for the last ten minutes. The boy sitting in front of Sora was still deeply engrossed in conversation, and his hand was lightly touching her shoulder as he spoke.

Tai sunk lower in his seat and looked somewhat frustrated at the maths problems in the text book, his cheeks grew a little pink.

Izzy's super-fast brain was working at super speed, putting together facts from what he had witnessed and from Tai's strange behaviour.

"Hey…" Izzy tilted his head slightly and raised an eyebrow, "You're not jealous, are you?"

Tai's face went bright red and he suddenly jumped up onto his feet, knocking his chair over noisily as he stood. "…I- I AM NOT JEALOUS!!"

The whole classroom was silent. The only sound was the clattering of his chair against the floor.

Tai picked up his chair and sunk into it, mortified.

The class slowly got over what had happened and became noisy again. Izzy bent down and looked worriedly at his friend. "Tai?"

Tai had buried his head down on the desk, his arms covering his eyes, textbook falling down onto his head.

"I'm… not… jealous, okay??" He muttered. "…I'm not!"

A cheeky grin crossed Izzy's face. "Sure fooled me," the computer geek smirked as he walked off.

_Why would I be jealous? What have I got to be jealous over?? _

The textbook slid down over his face as Tai turned to look at Sora. She was smiling and laughing and talking, just like always. She'd been his best friend for so long, this was the girl he'd spent so much time with and yet… how come he'd never noticed how beautiful that smile was?

He grit his teeth as he watched the other guy smile right back at her, a smooth lazy smile. He was standing now, at Sora's side, one hand on her shoulder, the other one gesturing and making actions as he talked.

That was another thing, Tai realized as he let his chin rest on the desk. They were best friends, weren't they?

…was it normal for other boys to just touch a girl's shoulder as they talked? Was it okay for them to just do that? Surely… no-one ever gave it a second thought… right?

_But… she's my best friend… _

He'd never thought about it. Even when they spent time together, whenever they walked together, they never touched. Was it some unspoken rule that they couldn't bump shoulders, that apart from high-fives or something, they weren't to touch?

_It's not like… I should even be thinking this much about all this… _His face burned a little and he turned away again. _I just… I dunno… its okay to feel a bit possessive, isn't it?_

_After all, she's _my _best friend! It's okay to feel angry and want to murder that guy over there, right?_

_I just… I wanna tell him to back off. To stay away from her. Because she's _my_ best friend!! I just… I just wanna look after her! That's normal, right? _

_There's nothing wrong with being a little possessive, yeah? _

"NOT YOU TOO!! GET AWAY FROM HER!" He screamed as another boy headed towards Sora's desk.

---

"You were really weird in Maths today." Sora said good-naturedly as she and Tai walked home.

Tai flushed with embarrassment. "Mmph…"

Sora laughed a little. "Haha! You're always so goofy, Tai! Like when you suddenly stood up and knocked your chair over!"

Tai grumbled inaudibly and walked a little faster.

Sora hurried to keep up with him. "Hey, Tai!" she pulled a face. "It's okay! You were just really out of it, that's all! You don't have to be embarrassed about it!"

Tai turned to look at her, half skeptical and half hopeful.

She smiled so bright it shocked him.

He stared at her, completely dumbstruck for a second before hurriedly looking away. His heart was racing, and there was this strange, desperate longing in his chest. He felt his face warm up and he desperately told his heart to calm down.

_What is this? _He thought hopelessly. _Why am I reacting like this? As if I haven't ever seen her smile before!!_

_But… this is all your fault, Sora! Why did you have to smile so cutely at me?? _

He kept his eyes focused on the ground, one hand clenched tightly to the bag strap over his shoulder as his walked, unable to look at Sora again.

She didn't seem to mind. She was happy, just walking along, humming to herself, her left hand swinging carelessly at her side.

Sometimes guys just put their arms around girls, even when they weren't going out or anything. Sometimes guys were just really casual with this stuff, the girl never seemed to really mind.

But…

Tai glanced at Sora's hand beside his and almost immediately he shoved his hand quickly into his pocket. He couldn't bring himself to even touch her hand.

But sometimes… on a day like today… he wanted to just reach out and grab her hand.

…not because he _liked _her, heck, of course not!! Hah, that would be ridiculous!

No… just because… just 'cause he was sick of all these guys hitting on her and he wanted to protect her from them.

Just 'cause she was his best friend.

_Yeah. _Tai thought to himself, feeling somewhat relieved. Just because of that.

**Once again, sorry for the long wait! I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please read and review!! ^_^ emichii **


	3. According to Shojo Manga

**Thankyou for the reviews! ^_^ Sorry again for the long wait! Please enjoy chapter 3!! Read and review! **

"_I'm sorry, Ty! I only think of you as a friend!" cried Sara with tears in her beautiful crimson eyes. _

"_No, it's okay, Sara." said Ty, his voice deep and hiding his feelings. He bowed his head in a gorgeous manner, his bishounen eyes deep and beautiful. _

"_I'm sorry," Sara said again, her eyes glittering with tears, simply not seeing how gorgeous and bishounen this bishounen youth in front of her was. _

"_No… No, it's okay." He stood, his back to her, the bright light from the sunset shining onto his perfect face. "I realize I am not yet worthy of you, Sara! I must… I must go and become… A MAN WORTHY OF YOUR AFFECTION!!" _

"_Oh, Ty…!" Sara cri-_

Sora was calling out. "Hey Tai!!"

"…eh? What? Gahh!!" Tai dropped the shojo manga he was reading.

**Chapter 3- According to Shojo Manga**

The manga book fell from his fingers. Flustered, Tai immediately reached for it to avoid it hitting the floor and juggled it in his hands for a moment before he finally caught it.

Sora laughed lightly. "I see you were enjoying yourself reading that!"

Tai flushed deep red, embarrassed. "What?" he sputtered. "No! I wasn't reading it!" He quickly placed the book on top of the other books set out on the table.

Tai and Sora were standing outside a book shop. There were tables set up in front of the store, manga books piled high on them, displayed for customers and people in the street to see.

"You sure?" Sora smirked, glancing down at the said book. "Hmm… Shojo manga, eh?"

"I wasn't reading it!" Tai said heatedly, his face turning red.

He stood there and turned red, looking crossly at her and she just smiled in that carefree way, like always. Tai's face softened and he gave her a lop-sided grin. "C'mon. Let's go."

---

No, they were not on a date. It was the weekend, and since they were best friends, it was perfectly normal to want to go hang out together, right?

For some reason, Tai found himself wondering about this.

Usually, he didn't give it a second thought. But now… He felt his heart rate get faster. Tai bit his lip as his face warmed up, just because he could hear her footsteps right beside him.

He… he was a 14-year-old boy! He didn't have to worry about this, did he? He wondered if he was being a bit too hysterical about everything. But… but, now that he thought about it again, if… if someone else were to see them together- a guy and a girl like this- would they… would they expect them to be dating?

Tai frowned, deep in thought. He was suddenly very confused and concerned at the same time. This face went warm.

But technically… they always did the same things, like kicking a soccer ball around, going to the park and just talking, watching movies at home, playing video games…

Tai's eyes narrowed. Sora was a girl… maybe… maybe she got sick of stuff like this all the time? He grew panicked. He must be boring to her!! What did other guys do when they went out with a girl?

Tai's face flushed and his heart beat faster and faster. Maybe… maybe he should ask Matt! Matt would know! Matt was always going out with girls, whether it was a date or not! What… where on earth were you meant to go?

He wanted… He wanted Sora to have fun with him, because well, they were best friends, weren't they? But surely, Sora was a girl, and she might want to do something different! He concentrated and tried to remember the shojo manga he was reading before, tried to remember where Matt went when he was with a girl, tried to work out what TK and Kari did when they went out, where Davis dragged Kari to, what Mimi liked to do…

_Damn. It's… really hard to impress a girl. _Tai was panicking.

"Tai!! Hurry up!" Sora cried. She was standing in front of the video game arcade.

He was about to suggest something else, but she had already gone inside. Tai had no choice but to follow her.

---

"Hyaaahh! Take that!!" Sora was laughing as she wielded the hammer. The crocodiles were coming in and out, in and out, faster and faster. Sora was faster though. Like lightning, she whacked the hammer down onto their heads.

Tai stood nearby, watching how the majority of the other people in the arcade were mainly guys around his age. _Of course,_ he thought stupidly, _who the heck takes a girl to a video game arcade?_

There was a cheerful melody coming out from the machine. Sora watched the tickets continue to flow out of the slot unendingly; they were strewn in a big pile on the ground. Then she turned to Tai and pulled a face. "Tai… I missed one."

Tai sweatdropped as he stared at her. _You serious? She's the fastest crocodile hammerer I've ever seen!! _

"Will you help me?" she asked him, hopefully. And Tai felt his heart jump in his chest. She didn't know it, but the expression on her face was so cute…

She was waiting for an answer as she put in another coin. So he tried to act nonchalant. "I guess…" he shrugged and sauntered over to the machine, next to her.

"Yeah! Thanks, Tai!" She grinned. And it was all such a simple matter, so trivial, for goodness sake; he was only helping her to hammer down crocodiles!! But she was so delighted, and her smile was so bright…

Tai stared at her, frozen.

"Tai?" Sora looked at him, the hammer in her hands. "It's starting." The cheerful melody burst out of the speakers.

"Huh? What? Ohh!" Tai stumbled over his words and then paid attention, quickly looking away from her and focusing a lot more than was required on the little tunnels that the crocodiles were in.

He clenched his hands into fists, and felt stupid as he punched down on the crocodiles, while Sora stood beside him swinging the hammer around lethally.

"Get that one!" She cried, as she swung her hammer down on a crocodile. Tai reached out for the one that was coming out of the middle tunnel.

_WHACK!! _

Tai's hand throbbed. Sora was holding a hammer above Tai's hand. The crocodile slid out from under Tai's hand and back into its tunnel. The cheerful melody continued to play in the background, as tears slid down Tai's face.

Sora abandoned the game, ignoring the crocodiles that continued to taunt them, sliding in and out. Tai dropped onto the floor.

"Ah! I'm so sorry, Tai!! Are you okay??"

Tai looked up wearily at her. "…I thought you told me to get that one."

Sora flushed. "I'm sorry… I was so set on getting every crocodile, that I quickly swung around and aimed for that one too!"

She was actually really concerned, crouching down beside him, while he was comically sprawled out on the floor.

"…for a girl… you sure hit hard…" Tai murmured, as he picked himself up.

Sora was so relieved that Tai was okay, that she burst out laughing. Even though, the machine was calling out in a snide voice: "_YOU LOST! YOU LOST!" _

Tai felt very embarrassed as he stood up, but it was okay, because Sora was laughing and happy.

He didn't tell her that it was disturbing for a hammer covered in squishy "safe" fabric to hurt that much.

---

"Tai? What's wrong?" Sora asked innocently, as she bit into her ice cream cone.

Tai was quiet, sitting beside her on the park bench, ignoring his chocolate ice cream which was slowly melting over his fingers.

"Huh?" he said absently, then saw the chocolate ice cream sliding down his hand and dripping, in slow motion towards his pants. He quickly lifted up the ice cream out of the way, and very narrowly avoided smushing it into Sora's face.

"Tai?" Sora frowned, serious. "What's up with you today?"

_What are you talking about? _Tai laughed in his head. _Everything's fine!! Everything is okay and wonderful! Hahahahahahaaa…!_

"Nothing," Tai said bluntly.

She looked slightly hurt from his comment, and he stumbled over his words and tried to backtrack.

"No… I mean… er, no seriously, I'm okay, Sora!!" he tried to convince her.

She looked down at her lap. "I really didn't mean to hit you with the hammer. It was an accident."

Tai laughed forcefully. "It's okay, Sora! I know it was an accident!"

"Yeah, but you're… you're weird today, Tai!" Sora cried, "Like, at the arcade and stuff… you're… you're acting strange."

"Why?" Tai stared at Sora. "…aren't you enjoying yourself?"

Sora looked at him. "No, it's not that! I am enjoying myself! But you… you're the one not having any fun, Tai."

Tai was surprised. His face went a bit pink. "Ahh… well…"

Sora was silent, not looking at him.

Tai panicked. _No!! No, it's not that I'm not enjoying myself!! Okay, well… I guess it is! But it's not… _

"It's not because I don't enjoy being with you!" He burst out, and she looked up and stared at him wide-eyed.

He stammered and stumbled over his words, his face flaming red, his heart beating out of his chest as he tried, tried so hard to explain to her.

"'cause I like being with you, Sora!" He exclaimed, his face burning. "I do enjoy being with you, Sora, I just… I just…"

_I just… don't know how to act around you anymore._

"I was just… worrying about whether… you actually liked… y'know… playing arcade games and stuff…" his voice got softer and softer, and he had to look down at his feet. "Because… I was thinking that… don't girls like to do other things… and I felt bad 'cause you're always doing the kind of things I like, and maybe… you weren't having as much fun… and maybe well… you…" he trailed off pointlessly.

Sora stared at him. Then she let out a little chuckle. "You're silly, Tai!"

He looked at her in surprise as she smiled cheerfully.

"What are you so worried about? We're best friends, aren't we?" She grinned. "Of course I enjoy being with you! And of course I like playing arcade games and stuff like that! You don't have to worry about whether I'd rather be somewhere else, or worry about impressing me!"

Tai's heart was beating so loud in his chest. But at the same time, there was the weirdest, warm feeling inside him as he watched her. It was a… very unfamiliar and strange feeling.

"Anyway," Sora jumped up to her feet, her smile still bright on her face. "I always have fun with you, Tai, and you better remember it!"

Tai felt all the worries from before slowly subside, and he began to feel embarrassed that he'd even worried about it. It all seemed so stupid now.

"_We're best friends, aren't we?" _she had said.

_Yeah… you're my best friend, Sora. _He thought to himself. _I shouldn't have to worry about impressing you or anything. I shouldn't have to think about why my chest feels funny when I look at you. I shouldn't have to think about why my face heats up when I talk to you… _

Tai stood up and grinned as hard as he could, pushing out all other thoughts in his head.

Sora smiled and led the way back to the arcade. "Good! Now we have to go back and play Time Crisis!!"

"All right!" Tai agreed, and he meant it.

---

Tai was frowning in concentration as he paced around. He was back at home, and worrying about his strange 'symptoms'. He walked through the house repeatedly, trying to understand what had happened today.

_ARGH!! This is ridiculous!! It just doesn't make sense!! _He pulled at his hair. _What was that strange feeling in my chest?? _

He paced around, and around, and then stopped outside Kari's bedroom, where she had left her door open. It was completely silent inside.

"Kari?" he wondered, looking inside. It was empty.

_Of course! _He remembered. _Kari's gone out with her beloved TK!! _He pulled a face. _Ughh… They're probably out acting all lovey-dovey and that… _

He stepped inside her room, and his eyes caught the manga books that lined her shelves.

Tai frowned.

---

"_I don't get it, why am I like this?" The girl moaned hopelessly to her best friend, who sympathetically patted her on the back. "Can you tell me what's wrong with me?"_

_Her friend nodded. The main character raised her head to the skies and opened her arms out dramatically. "When I'm with this person, I can't help but feel my happiest! But at the same time, I keep worrying about them, and I keep hoping that I'm impressing them!" _

"_Sometimes, when this person smiles at me, there's a strange feeling twisting around inside my stomach!" _

"_Sometimes, when I'm talking to them, I can't put my words in the right order, and I end up stammering all the time!" _

"_When I see this person with someone else, I begin to feel incredibly possessive."_

"…_Whenever I'm with this person, my heart rate picks up and gets really fast, and my face heats up!"_

_The friend smirked. "Do you know what all those signs mean?" _

"_What?" asked the clueless one._

"_It means-"_

"TAI!! What are you doing in my room?? Hey! Are you reading my manga?"

---

"_It means you've got a crush on that person, idiot." _

**Sorry for the long wait! ^_^ Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Yes, Sora is an incredibly violent crocodile hammer. And it is perfectly all right for girls to be good at arcade games. It is also okay for guys to read shojo manga. Of course, it's also okay to give them a bit of ribbing for it. Please review!! **


	4. Advice from a Mate

**Helloooo!! ^_^ emichii here! Sorry for the long wait. Damn, I'm saying that too much in my fanfic these days. But I did update my other fic last week, so it's okay. School will be over for this year for me very soon, so I hope to be able to work a lot more on my writing! ^_^ Thankyou so much for all your reviews everyone! It's always so great to read your comments and thoughts! Just in case some of you didn't get it, at the end of chapter 3, Tai never read the last line from the shojo manga, as Kari kicked him out of her room.**

**Enjoy Chapter 4!! Read and review!!**

**Chapter 4- Advice from a Mate**

"Hey Tai!"

Man, she was so clueless to it; she smiled the way she always did, so innocent and lovable. She just completely did not realize the way his chest tied up whenever she smiled like that for him. She did not know at all, had no idea that he was struggling with this… this… frigging strange… _feeling _inside him!

Tai smiled back at his best friend. "Morning, Sora."

She replied with an adorable grin and turned to catch up with her friends to get to class.

_She's my best friend. That's right. She is… precious to me because she's my closest friend. And that's it. _

_I just… _

He stood there, in front of his open locker, in the process of extracting his textbooks from the jungle of books, paper and rubbish inside. He stared at her.

Sora laughed, and she wasn't one of those girls who constantly giggle in that delicate girly way, but she didn't forcibly laugh loudly to attract the attention of guys or anything. She laughed… and it was an honest good laugh. He knew that laugh so well. But…

She went on, through the crowd of students, with her friends. Mimi, with her long pink hair, beside her and a group of other girls Tai didn't know crowded around them. Because girls were strange and travelled in packs.

But…

Tai's face grew bright red and heated, as he watched her. Sure, the hallway was crowded, but she stood out. And she was beautiful.

Just because… he was a clueless 14-year-old soccer player, and had spent the last 14 years of his time and energy devoted to soccer and thinking about soccer… that was the only reason he hadn't been paying attention. Sora had grown up and…

Tai was shocked out of his skull when he noticed that she had turned her head to look back at him, through the crowd of students. He was too embarrassed and terrified to even let their eyes meet; he immediately shoved his head behind his open locker door and jammed his forehead against the cold metal.

There was a bang as his head and the locker collided, and he recoiled back from the locker, his head throbbing, cussing under his breath, and he lifted his hands up to nurse his poor head, and in turn the heavy textbooks he had been clutching onto fell onto his feet and clattered on the floor with a loud crash.

The pain spiraled up from his foot and the loud noise from the books made him bite his tongue, and he swore, out loud now, for all the students in the hallway to hear.

The guys around him burst out laughing and he got slaps on his back for his goofy comedy routine. The stupid girls crowding around the boys' lockers giggled and Sora and her friends stood there and looked back at Tai and the books on the floor. Mimi was fighting a smile; she was hunched over, trying not to crack up. The other girls were not even hiding their wide grins and chuckles.

He was embarrassed, and bent down to quickly pick up his books, not wanting to look at Sora's reaction. Even so, he glanced up, very quickly, just to see how she was reacting.

She looked practically embarrassed for her hopeless friend, and there was a sympathetic smile on her face. And then she shook her head, as though she was used to it, and laughed as she walked off again. Not a mocking laugh like the others, but her lovely honest laugh.

---

"Tai?"

Tai was sitting at his desk, slumped over, and sprawled out over the desk. The soccer player looked up to see Matt Ishida standing there beside him.

The blonde boy grinned and dropped his books on the next desk, pulling over the chair closer to Tai and sitting down. "How's it going, mate?"

Matt was a good friend of Tai's, but they were so different. There was no way he'd ever understand, Tai thought dryly to himself.

"Hey Matt," he replied, somewhat unenthusiastically.

"I heard about your stunt in the hallway this morning," Matt said with a cheeky grin. "Too bad I wasn't there to see it! Damn, I wish I had been there!"

"Shut up," Tai said lightheartedly as he sat up.

He looked around the classroom, and there were the usual suspects- the girls grouped up together, giggling constantly and drawing love hearts all over their diaries and what not. As he frowned at them, he caught the eye of a long blonde-haired girl. She immediately blushed and looked down at her books.

Tai pulled a face and turned to Matt. "Hey," he said, in typical naive school boy style, "Don't you think girls are weird?"

Matt was leaning back on his chair, absentmindedly running a hand through his blond hair. Past him, Tai could see the whole other side of the room- girls- staring goggle-eyed at the gorgeous young musician. Tai sweat-dropped.

What was he thinking, bringing up the topic of girls with Matt Ishida, the most popular boy in the grade, if not the entire school?

Matt stopped swinging back on his chair and swung himself upright again, his feet hitting the ground with a thump. The way his gorgeous blonde hair ruffled around his face from the momentum caused two girls that were watching him to swoon and collapse onto the floor.

"What do you mean, Tai?" Matt asked, with his undivided attention. A wicked smile was beginning to stretch across his mouth. "Has someone finally caught your eye, you soccer-obsessed boy?"

"What?" Tai's voice rose unnaturally high and made himself jump. "NO!!" He looked angrily defiant, so childish. Just like when those young school kids used to run around each other in the playground chanting that so-and-so _liked _you!!

Matt easily saw through the immature boy. Reaching across to give him one of those buddy punches in the arm, he threw back his head and laughed carefreely, at which the two girls who had just recovered from their fainting spell both got blood noses.

"You've always been the slow one, Tai! All you ever thought about was soccer and hanging around with your mates; you never really paid any attention to girls! It's about time you woke up! I'm happy for you!"

"What?" Tai looked baffled.

Matt chuckled quietly under his breath and muttered to himself, a little bit too loud: "Phew, I was starting to think that you were gay."

"WHAT??" Tai exclaimed, horrified.

Matt ignored the appalled brown-haired boy and leaned in closer, triumphant in the fact that his good friend had woken up. "Okay, well… what can I tell you about the species we call 'girls'?"

He drummed his fingers on the desk as he thought. "Ah! Well, they're always really eager to hear what you have to say, and they'll always make time to see you and go out, even when they've just been complaining about how much homework they have!"

_That's only you, mate. _Tai thought bluntly.

_On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned anything to him at all. Besides, it's not as if I _like _Sora or anything! Of course not! She's my best friend! _He suddenly felt very confident and sure of himself, and he straightened up and held his head up high. _That's the truth! It's simply not possible, and it's not allowed! She's my very best friend, and there's no way I like her like that! _

_That's right! _He thought defiantly to himself.

_Although… _He hunched over a little bit again and felt a bit of his spirit deplete. His face burned again. _Her laugh sure is adorable…_

Matt was still talking about girls, the girls he liked, the girls he had been with and then broke up with, the girls that he used to be with but then for some reason they had dumped him, like, what on earth was with that? Why would they break up with him? Wasn't he the love of their life or something? Why would she ditch him for that pimply skateboarder who sat in the back of their science class? Honestly, didn't she have any taste in men, and-

_Maybe it's because you're kind of a cocky bastard, Matt. _Tai thought.

"And then-" Matt said loudly, "there's _her! _She requires a whole category to herself!"

Tai looked at him. "Who?"

The blonde musician scowled. "Who do you think? She's ditzy, she never shuts up and she's so bossy! She always moves around with a posse of girls around her, and it's as though she's the queen of the school or something! I can't stand girls who are high-handed and haughty like her!"

Matt shook his head and muttered, once again, a bit too loud, "That Mimi Tachikawa…!"

"WHAT??" The said girl that happened to be sitting at the desk in front of Tai's jumped to her feet and spun around to glare at Matt. "What do you mean high-handed and haughty? And I am not ditzy! How dare you, Matt Ishida! You jerk!"

"See what I mean?" Matt whispered to Tai, and Tai said nothing.

"Don't ignore me!" Mimi cried, furious. Her wavy pink hair fell down past her shoulders and her pretty face was twisted into an angry scowl as she raged at Matt. "You're so darn arrogant and full of yourself; you think you're so good-looking and that every single girl in the school likes you-"

Matt got to his feet as well, and the two of them started bickering like there was no tomorrow. He was angry too, his face flushed red as he argued with the one girl who didn't like him. Obviously his pride was bruised by Mimi's comments, although Tai had to admit that what Mimi said was quite true.

_Forget it, _Tai thought, watching them dryly. _Matt may be the most popular boy in the grade, but even he can't understand what's wrong with me. Or him, for that matter. _He smirked silently.

Looking to the side, trying to block out the incessant arguing, he noticed the blonde-haired girl from before staring at him again. He frowned, and she blushed and giggled hopelessly, hiding her face with her hands.

The brown-haired soccer player scowled in frustration. Maybe he should just go back to thinking only about soccer. Girls… they were too much trouble.

Tai sighed and leaned on one hand, staring ahead, while the noise of Matt and Mimi's squabbling went on.

---

The corridor was crowded and noisy in the afternoon, students shouting and shoving past each other to get through. Tai made his way through the crowd, trying to get through as fast as possible; he knew that Sora was waiting for him.

He paused at his locker and glanced over at the boy next to him. Matt was struggling with the combination, but noticing that his good friend Tai was with him, he looked over and gave him a charming grin. This caused a girl standing in close proximity to stare gobsmacked at the blonde and then collapse, knocking over one of her friends onto the ground.

"Yikes!" Matt had opened his locker door and quickly slammed it shut again.

"What is it?" asked Tai.

"You know what it is," Matt said with a shrug. He took a deep breath and pulled open the locker door again, expertly stepping out of the way as a flood of envelopes and love letters came pouring out.

Seeing Tai's expression, he murmured, "Yeah, I know. Girls are weird."

The letters and envelopes spilled out, forming a large pile on the floor. Matt waded his way through to get back to the locker. "It's okay though," he commented, "I've worked out how to move out of the way when they come. I almost drowned the other day and there was this huge crowd of girls fighting over who got to give me CPR."

"What can I say?" Matt moved his head and made his ruffled hair flick out of his eyes. "I can't help being good-looking!"

There was a disbelieving snort as a certain pink-haired girl strutted past.

"Hey!" Matt immediately turned around and immaturely pulled a face at Mimi.

Tai shook his head to himself and proceeded to open his locker door. As he reached inside to get his books, he noticed a single white envelope lying there. Frowning, he picked it up.

Sora was standing on the other side of the corridor, watching Tai curiously. Mimi was beside her, huffily complaining about why Matt Ishida deserved to die, while constantly throwing evil glances at the said boy.

One of her friends, a girl with long blonde hair was on her other side, also watching Tai. Sora looked nervous as soon as she saw Tai pick up the envelope. As Tai frowned and looked at it, she quickly looked away, her cheeks turning slightly pink.

_What's this? _Tai wondered, looking at the envelope. He glanced down beside him at the massive pile on the ground. _Just my luck to have a locker next to the great Yamato Ishida._

_Some idiot must have accidentally put it in the wrong locker. _He thought, and without a second thought, tossed it over his shoulder onto the pile.

Sora looked upset as Tai swung his backpack over his shoulder and slammed his locker door shut. She turned her back to him and started conversing in urgent whispers with the blonde-haired girl, who was nodding, disappointment also written over her face.

"Sora!" he called out, now in front of her. "Sorry for making you wait. Let's go,"

He noticed the blonde-haired girl and nodded his head politely at her, smiling his trademark goofy but cute grin. She smiled shyly back at him.

"Hey Mimi." He greeted her as well, she was texting away furiously on her mobile phone, but she looked up at the mention of her name. Mimi and Tai were friends, although she couldn't stand Matt.

"Hi Tai!" Mimi sounded bubbly and cheerful. She smiled, and it was a very pretty smile, making her face light up. She was a lively and pretty girl, of course, and the object of many boys' affections.

Behind him, there was the sound of heavy footsteps as a grumpy Matt stomped past. Mimi's delightful smile quickly twisted into a hideous sneer as she glared at the other boy.

---

They had been walking in silence for a while now.

Tai looked worriedly at Sora, who was visibly upset, maybe a little angry.

"What's up? Are you all right?"

"What? I'm fine!" Sora said automatically, but her face was stretched tight and her voice sounded forced.

The concern was obvious in Tai's eyes. "No, seriously! Are you okay, Sora? You… look upset." Almost immediately, he felt dread that he'd brought it up. He felt his cheeks burning and he looked down away from her.

_Damn! _He thought, suddenly feeling panicky in his stomach. Man, it was weird! He hoped desperately that Sora wouldn't notice. _But it's not like I like her or anything, remember? _He reminded himself.

Sora still hadn't responded and he glanced over at her, and he couldn't help the weird affection and care bursting out of his chest.

_It's not right. It's not right!! It shouldn't be allowed! _He felt dizzy all of sudden. _She's my best friend! What is this? I shouldn't be feeling this way! I shouldn't! I don't know! I…!! GAAAHHHH!! _It was all he could do from keeping from screaming out loud, and by then his face was already the colour of a beetroot from holding in his breath and desperately trying to pull himself together.

"Seriously, I'm okay." Sora said slowly.

Tai stopped, and stared at her in wonderment.

She stopped too and looked back at her caring best friend. She paused, seemed to breathe in, compose herself. And she smiled, in that adorable, honest way of hers.

"Don't worry about it, Tai! I'm fine!" she smiled.

And she meant it, really. Tai felt himself relax, all the knots in the stomach loosening. And once again, his heart rate picked up as he looked at her.

_Oh crap. _Her smile made his face burn, his pulse race, and his heart start flying around uncontrollably in his chest. 

"Now come on, hurry up!" Sora said cheerfully, and Tai had to run to catch up with her.

---

If he had paid any attention, he'd have noticed that the envelope he had so carelessly tossed onto the pile of love letters had the name TAI written clearly on it.

**End of chapter 4! I hope you enjoyed it! ^_^ I really enjoyed writing it, particularly with Mimi and Matt now taking an active role in the story. The relationship they have here is very different from my other fics, and they all act pretty immature. I'm eager to see what else might happen! I'm hoping to bring in other characters too! Izzy made an entrance in chapter 2, but he'll be back! And I plan for Joe and TK and possibly Davis to make an appearance too. Please read and review! emichii! **


	5. I think I prefer Denial, thanks!

**I disclaim!! Digimon does not belong to me! It belongs to Hongo-sensei and Toei Company, both of which I hold a grudge against for killing taiora. **

**Thankyou so much for all the encouraging reviews! ^_^ I hope you'll enjoy chapter 5! Read and review! **

**Chapter 5- I think I prefer denial, thanks. **

"I can't stand long wavy pink hair." Matt said with a scowl.

"Oh yeah?" Tai said absently.

"Yeah," The blonde boy said firmly. "And I don't like haughtiness and conceitedness and the really fast proud way that she talks and how all the other guys fawn over her. And I don't like how everyone talks about how pretty she is, when she actually isn't that hot. And…"

They were walking down the school corridors and through the campus during lunch break, having just visited their lockers to dump down their books and grab their lunches.

_For someone who hates her that much, you sure spend a lot of time talking about her, _Tai thought but did not say.

Matt didn't finish his sentence, instead turning around to give a flirtatious smile and nod at a group of girls who were standing in the corner. Tai ignored Matt and kept walking, leaving Matt behind to make small talk with the girls.

Up ahead, Sora and Mimi were deep in conversation. Mimi was shaking her head in obvious frustration and annoyance, so that her long pink wavy hair rippled down her back like a waterfall. Sora was listening to her talk, with a small smile on her face as though it was quite amusing.

Tai saw them up ahead, and just seeing Sora there suddenly made his chest tighten and his heart do somersaults. He was about to run and catch up to them, when Matt caught up to him, panting a little bit. "Gee, Tai, just leave me behind, why don't you?"

Tai shrugged.

"So…" the blonde boy shoved his hands into his pockets and said casually, "You never told me which girl it was you liked, Tai."

Tai spun around and looked horrified at his friend. "WHAT??" Already, his bright red and heated face betrayed him.

Matt gave him a wicked grin, tapping the side of his nose. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone."

"I already told you!" Tai blurted out, "I don't like anyone!" Inside his mind, all his thoughts were completely haywire and frazzled. He felt dizzy, and Sora was still walking just in front of him, with her pretty red hair and her lovely smile. And wait, what was he even thinking?? HE DIDN'T LIKE HER!! Not like… not like… _that, _anyway!

_Ah crap…! _Tai buried his face in his hands, shocked at how warm his face was. Damn, his heart was beating completely out of control and he felt just slightly hysterical. He didn't know what was what anymore.

_I don't… I don't like her! _He looked up and snuck a glance at her in front of him, feeling his heart leap in his chest. _Sora's my best friend! That's all! _

"Don't be ridiculous," Matt said with a deadpan expression on his face, looking slightly exasperated. "It's completely obvious, looking at the expression on your face," Matt said.

"I DON'T LIKE HER THAT WAY!!" Tai exclaimed.

There seemed to be silence all around him for a moment. Tai flushed. That's what always happened, it was always noisy until you had an outburst and the whole world would shut up to hear it.

Up ahead, Sora had turned around to look at him, wondering what had just happened.

Tai wished that the ground underneath him would swallow him up.

**--- **

Tai sat down with a heavy thud on his seat in the library, dropping his stack of books down with a clatter, making Joe Kido look up from across the desk.

The older, glasses-wearing boy nodded his head. "Hey Tai."

Tai's face was pushed down onto the desk; his arms sprawled out in front of him. "Hey Joe," he mumbled.

Joe adjusted his glasses and opened his mouth to question why Tai was acting in such a way. And then on second thoughts, he decided not to, knowing that he couldn't understand the goofy boy even if he tried.

"Hey guys," A laptop computer said and sat itself down on the desk. From behind it Izzy was still typing away as he sat down.

Tai still hadn't changed his position from when he first sank down, face-first into the desk. Absently, he noticed all the chatter around him, all the careful whispering between turned pages. Technically, he was meant to be using this period to study, but heck, studying was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

Before, just after recess when he was coming to the library, carrying all his books, he'd accidentally walked straight into Sora. She was surprised, but gave him her usual delightful laugh. But… she wasn't angry about it or anything, it was just an accident and being best friends, of course it didn't matter that they'd bumped into each other.

But…

He hadn't seen her; she seemed so small, hidden behind her towering pile of books. And he been shocked, watching the books tumble down and revealing her surprised face as she struggled to juggle and catch them.

Usually, Tai would have said sorry immediately, of course. He would've have laughed with her about it, because duh, they were _best friends_! It was okay, it didn't matter! He would've offered to help with her books; he would've said something goofy that made her smile as usual. But she completely surprised him.

As soon as he saw her, right in front of him, he completely froze. His face had burned up and gotten so hot. And surely, she had noticed right, she would've noticed that he was as red as a tomato and that for some reason he couldn't say anything.

Tai let out a such a long sigh from his sprawled out position that Joe almost jumped.

_Damn, I must've looked like such a moron! _Tai thought miserably. He could just imagine himself, standing there frozen, his face heated and staring at her like a retard while she tried to catch all her books. And then she had said something, laughed a little at their abrupt meeting and went on her way.

He should've said something. The normal Tai would've laughed along with her, would've felt completely comfortable in her presence and said goodbye to her when she left. Instead, he'd been struggling so hard to make his face cool down that he was practically scowling, looking like he'd eaten something sour.

Even now, it was hard to make his heart stop beating extra fast. Tai's face heated up. _I'm such an idiot! What's wrong with me? _He recalled standing there, face red, staring after her as she walked away.

His heartbeat rose up even faster, his breath seemed to get caught up in his throat, and his face was so hot he was practically sweating. Suddenly, it was as though he couldn't breathe, the hysteria rising up inside him.

"Aarrghhh! I… I can't breathe!!" Tai cried out, suddenly sitting up and panting with exhaustion, his face bright red.

"It might help if you didn't suffocate yourself face-down on the desk," Izzy said.

---

"I can't believe he didn't take that letter!" The blonde girl complained, walking next to Sora as they entered the library.

"Yeah, I know," Sora agreed, quietly. She went on, hurriedly, her face turning a little red. "But don't worry about it, seriously! It's not a big deal! We'll work it out!"

The blonde girl sighed, her blue eyes cast down at the ground. "He can be so stupid sometimes," she said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Sora smiled a little to herself, thinking with a bit of endearment of her clueless best friend.

As she followed her friend over to an empty desk, inside she worried about the said best friend. _I wonder why he didn't say anything to me when he bumped into me earlier, _Sora thought with a frown as she put down her books and looked around the library. _I hope he's all right._ _Tai… _

---

"Ah crap! She's here! She'll see me!" Tai almost screeched as he flattened himself down against the desk again.

Izzy looked up from his laptop screen. "Tai, what's wrong?"

Tai didn't reply, he was too busy sliding his way off his seat and onto the floor.

Even Joe was distracted from his favourite textbook on quadratic equations. "T-Tai," he whimpered, "I-I don't think that's a good idea. It's not very hygienic, there could be dust and…"

"Don't let Sora know I'm here!" came a desperate voice from underneath the table.

"But why?" Izzy leaned back on his chair and looked down at Tai, who was huddled under the desk.

Tai didn't reply. He could see someone's shoes approaching.

"Hey Izzy, hey Joe," said Sora.

"Hi," they both replied, looking somewhat anxious. Well, Joe always looked anxious, but Izzy was usually relatively calm and in control. Right now, he was barely paying any attention to his laptop computer, instead looking off to the side as though trying to draw attention somewhere else.

Sora's eyes drifted down. "Where's Tai?" She asked simply.

"Tai?" Joe said hurriedly. "He's not here,"

Sora's eyes narrowed. "Yes, he is,"

Under the desk, Tai gritted his teeth.

"His books are here." she said pointedly.

"What Joe meant," Izzy said quickly, "is that Tai's not _here _right now. See, his seat is empty. He's probably somewhere else in the library." Under the desk, he was kicking Tai repeatedly in the shoulder and Tai was gritting his teeth to avoid swearing at Izzy and revealing his hiding spot.

"Oh." Sora didn't appear angry, and instead looked disappointed. "Okay,"

As she walked away, Izzy grumbled, "Tai, you owe us for lying for you."

"Yeah, of course," Tai mumbled back, rubbing his sore shoulder. _You already got me back by kicking me so hard!_

Joe went back to his book. Izzy began typing again, calmly and rhythmically, his keys clacking more loudly that usual.

"What did you do anyway? You guys are best friends, right? Why are you avoiding her?" Izzy asked.

"I don't know," Tai sighed. "I didn't do anything."

"So why?"

_It's exactly because I _didn't _do anything, _Tai thought. _I don't know why I acted so weird with her earlier! _Tai couldn't answer Izzy's question. He couldn't even answer his own questions. The poor, confused soccer player crawled out from under the table and edged his way away to hide behind the bookshelves.

"Tai?"

Tai froze on the spot. Sora was standing there, between the bookshelves, with an armful of books.

He felt his face burn again and his heart rate pick up.

_Aw crap, _Tai thought.

---

"Hey, you know that movie we watched the other day?" Matt said.

"Yeah," Tai grabbed his gearbag out of his locker and slammed the door shut. He and Matt began to walk through the bustling corridor, full of students done with the school day and ready to head home. Tai had soccer training, so he had his gearbag over one shoulder. Matt had his guitar on his back.

"The guy in it was so stupid, huh?" Matt laughed. "He spent the whole first half of the movie completely denying and not realizing that he was completely in love with the girl!"

"I know, right?" Tai agreed. "It was pretty obvious, because he kept freezing up and doing stupid things whenever he saw her. Especially that part when he sees her all dressed up and she looks hot and everything."

Matt shook his head. "What an idiot."

Tai laughed, running ahead to get to the oval for training. "I'll see ya tomorrow, Matt!" He called out. Matt raised a hand and waved back at him.

Tai was in a good mood as he sat on the field and tied up the laces of his soccer boots. Around him he could head the sounds of the rest of the team laughing and chatting as they made their way across to the field.

_It sure was a funny movie, _Tai thought jovially as he got to his feet. Suddenly, he saw Sora standing nearby, on the edge of the field, looking down sideways at the grass.

His heart tightened. _Sora… _He felt the strange anxiety and fear rise up in him again, and the funny way his heart raced and the weird heat in his cheeks. Damn, he felt so bad, so guilty. When he saw her in the library, he desperately did some quick talking and made it sound like he was in a hurry to go somewhere.

She was his best friend. He owed her an apology. And he felt slightly better now, in his element, on the field with his soccer gear; even though his stomach was still turning somersaults.

"Sora?" He jogged over towards her.

She looked surprised that he was deliberately coming to talk to her. "Hey…" she said slowly, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

"You know I have training this afternoon, so I can't walk home with you," he said meaninglessly. He knew that she already knew.

"Yeah, I know."

They stood there in silence.

"Um…" Tai couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. He frowned a bit as he looked awkwardly away, shoving his hands into the pockets of his shorts. "Uh, about today… I'm sorry."

She blinked at him.

"I'm sorry," he raised a hand and scratched the back of his head absentmindedly, his cheeks growing heated. "I was acting really weird around you today. You know, with bumping into you and not saying anything. And with the library and stuff. Um, I don't know why I was acting so strange, but I'm sorry. I'm not angry at you or anything, and I didn't want to make you angry at me either. I'm sorry, Sora,"

She pulled an annoyed face, her mouth curved in a pout. And Tai thought, with shock, that she looked cute when she pulled that face.

"I guess I forgive you," she said indifferently, scuffing the top of her shoe across the grass. And then she looked up and him and smiled brightly. "Stupid Tai," she said lightheartedly, shaking her head. She put her hands on her hips and told him, "You know how worried about you I was?"

He stared at her.

"Anyway, it's all right now!" She said cheerfully as she turned to head home. "Have fun at soccer training," she called out to him.

"See ya," he replied.

Matt's words suddenly floated in to Tai's head.

"_You never told me which girl it was you liked, Tai." _

Even though Sora was now quite a few metres away, and all he could see was her figure walking home, his heart beat faster, and his heart ached a little.

_She's my best friend, _He thought to himself unnecessarily.

For some reason, watching her walk home made him worry. And it was broad daylight, and he knew she'd be safe and all right. But seeing her walk home alone made him feel sad. Even though he was having soccer training, suddenly he wanted to be there with her, walking with her, laughing and joking together, talking about anything and everything.

"_The guy in it was so stupid, huh? He spent the whole first half of the movie completely denying and not realizing that he was completely in love with the girl!" _

Darn, he wished he was with her right now. He wanted to see her adorable smile and hear her honest laugh, and see her cute pout.

"Tai! Get over here!" One of his soccer mates was yelling out to him.

He was out of it, absentmindedly turning back towards the field and walking back, his mind far away.

"_Don't be ridiculous, it's completely obvious, looking at the expression on your face," _Tai remembered Matt's skeptical look at his excuses.

Tai's heart beat faster and faster. _You've got to be kidding! _He thought to himself, his eyes widening.

"_It was pretty obvious, because he kept freezing up and doing stupid things whenever he saw her." _And damn, his own words, his very own words came back to Tai.

_No way… NO WAY!! _Tai's face burnt bright red, as his heart stopped for a moment.

But it was so true. All those absolutely stupid things he did around her. The time at the arcade trying to impress her, the mess with hitting his head on the locker door and dropping his books on his foot, the stupid way he stood and gaped at her, the hiding under the desk trying to avoid her…

His face was burning, dammit, it was on fire!

"_What an idiot."_

"_Stupid Tai," _The sweet way she said it, with her smile and the way she shook her head at him.

He joined the others, sitting down on the grass. Everyone was fiddling around with their soccer boots and shin pads, some boys having already stolen a soccer ball from somewhere and seeing who could juggle it for the longest.

_No way!! _Tai screamed in his mind. _It's impossible!! It's not allowed! Noooo! _

The way she smiled at him, her cute little mannerisms. How she was always fun to be with, fun to talk to, how she knew him so well. They were best friends! How he had stared at her in amazement from the soccer field just a week or so ago, astounded by how lovely she had grown up to be.

There was a sinking feeling inside his stomach, going so deep.

Tai buried his face in his hands. The other boys didn't notice his dilemma.

_But she's my best friend… _He thought weakly, but he knew it was unnecessary to remind himself. It was too late. His face was still warm, and his heart was going so fast, and all his thoughts were of her. Tai collapsed backwards onto the grass.

_I like her! _He thought, his heartbeat slowing now, but so painful._ … I really, really like her! _

He was so screwed.

**Remember, accepting that you have a problem is the first step to overcoming it! XD Good work, Tai, you finally worked it out! Damn, that took him ages!! Anyway, things should really start moving now! ^_^ Please review! **


	6. The Failsafe Guide to Getting the Girl

**Thankyou very much for all the reviews! ^_^ Okay, well, you know that blonde girl in the story? She's gonna play a more major role soon, but I had never really decided whether she was gonna be another OC, or if I should just make her Catherine. Tell me what you think! Here's chapter 6! Enjoy and review! **

**Chapter 6: The Fail-safe Guide to Getting the Girl**

Tai sat uneasily at the table. Seated all around him with grim expressions on their faces were Izzy, Matt, Joe, TK and even Davis. And it was rare for Davis to even hold a grim expression for over five seconds.

"What?" The clueless soccer player asked.

Matt had a serious look on his face. He leaned forward, his hands in solemn fists on top of the table. "We're here to help you, Tai."

"Help me? With _what_??" At the last word, Tai's voice went high-pitched.

Matt snorted with disbelief. "What do you think?" The blonde boy looked around at the others and snickered. "Tai has _girl problems!_"

Tai's face went bright red. "WHAT? I do not!!" he burst out, at which all the students that were milling around turned and stared in his direction.

Izzy was smirking himself and TK had a small smile on his face. Joe looked constantly nervous as usual.

"I… I don't need your help," Tai said heatedly, his face red. "Besides, I know that you might be the heartthrob of all the girls in this school, Matt, but why Joe and Izzy and Davis?"

Matt smirked. "Tai, I'm sorry to break it to you, mate, but you're the only one of us who is completely hopeless when it comes to girls. TK, as you obviously know, is happily dating your sister."

Tai pulled a face and glared at the younger blonde boy, who shrugged and smiled.

"Joe is in a relationship with a girl in his year." Matt said.

"WHAAAAATT?" Tai, Izzy and Davis cried.

Joe looked embarrassed and looked down at the table, but he did not deny it. "We didn't want everyone to find out about it. It might distract us from our studies."

At this, Izzy turned to Tai and snickered, "I bet what they classify as a 'date' is getting together at the library to study their textbooks together."

Matt seemed unfazed by Joe's secret relationship. "Yeah, they've been together for over three months now." He didn't seem as shocked as the others. Instead, he leaned over and said quietly, but smugly: "Besides, I bet she's not even that hot. She's probably all freckly, kinda chunky and has braces and wears glasses and is a nerd."

"Um," said Joe, having not noticed the snickering between Izzy, Tai and Matt. "That's her over there." He flushed slightly and pointed across the room.

Everyone gaped.

The girl Joe was pointing out was not freckly, or slightly chubby, or wearing glasses. She was slender and very pretty, with glossy black hair that fell to her shoulders, very long eyelashes, and very pink lips. Her legs were long and pale, she wore nail polish that was the lightest blue and she carried a stack of schoolbooks in her arms.

Everyone was staring, flabbergasted at Joe's secret girlfriend. Joe was blushing faintly.

The girl suddenly turned around and noticed Joe. A smile spread across her lips and she openly lifted up her hand and waved at him.

Matt was stunned, and stammered out what everyone else at the table was thinking. "She's… she's… _hot!_"

And she wasn't ashamed or embarrassed by noticing Joe and waving out to him. Joe might not have been the best-looking boy in the school, but he was capable of having a true relationship that was not based on just appearance.

Matt's head was spinning around in circles. In his world, hot girls like her would not want to be seen around nerdy boys like Joe, not even want to be seen interacting or even waving at someone like Joe. But this girl… she was a nerd apparently, really smart, she worked hard on her studies, she was unlike the shallow girls Matt knew so well, and she was _gorgeous! _

Tai looked knowingly at his good friend Matt Ishida. _Matt, _he thought, _you really are shallow. _Matt was probably wondering how on earth someone like Joe could've gotten to this girl before him.

"…she does wear reading glasses though," Joe said. But he smiled faintly as he added, "But I think she looks cute in them."

The other boys all looked at Joe, now happily off in his floaty world of teenage first love, a smile on his lips as he just sat there, daydreaming away.

Even TK looked somewhat wistful. Kari was a very independent young girl, and sometimes TK felt like she didn't even need him.

"So…" Tai spoke up, to get their attention again. "As I was saying before, how am I more hopeless with girls than Davis and Izzy?"

Matt perked up to attention again. Davis was grinning like an idiot. Tai didn't even want to ask.

"Well… Davis?" Tai asked his lookalike slowly.

Davis stood up and struck an idiotic victory pose. "I, Davis Motomiya, have scored a date for this Friday afternoon!"

At this news, both Izzy and Tai also jumped to their feet and gaped at Davis. TK leant his chin on a hand and looked off absentmindedly into the distance, still a bit wistful over Kari, and obviously having heard all about Davis' upcoming date for the last three days.

"WHAT? NO WAYY!" Tai screamed.

"You! Who on earth would date YOU?!?" Izzy screamed.

Davis pulled an offended face, but it was obvious that he was proud.

---

"I _told _you, I don't need any help with anything!" Tai muttered. The brunette had his hands shoved into his pockets, and his face was screwed up in frustration. His cheeks were heated.

"Yeah, right," Matt said skeptically.

_Since when did Matt just _decide _that I was having trouble with girls? _Tai thought to himself, gritting his teeth. _Okay, well, its just _one _girl. One particular girl…_

Tai felt his heart weaken and his mind start dazing off. _One particular girl… _He thought dreamily; …_who happens to be the most beautiful girl in the world. _

Tai glanced up to see Sora standing at the other end of the corridor, waiting patiently for him. Tai's face burned. Shaking his head violently, he told himself to snap out of it.

Unfortunately… Tai stared wide-eyed at the pretty red-haired girl who stood there,that one particular girl was his best friend.

Matt slapped Tai on the back, but wasn't paying attention to where his dazed friend was looking, so _still _hadn't worked out which girl it was that Tai fancied.

"As I was saying," the blonde boy said casually, as he threw his school books into his bag, "If you need any help, just ask."

Tai didn't answer.

He looked like a right moron, standing there, still, in the crowd bustling around their lockers. He was gazing rather forlornly down the corridor at Sora. She was so oblivious, laughing with her friends; he could pick out her lovely laughter from throughout the noise.

"On second thoughts," Matt went on, retrieving a crumpled piece of paper from within his crowded locker, "Since there's no way you'll even ask, Stupid Tai, I've been so nice as to put together this fail-safe guide for you…"

Matt straightened up, the paper in his hands, and looked over at the love struck Tai. Matt frowned and followed Tai's gaze down the hall, eager to work out who it was that Tai liked. The girl he saw at the end of the corridor was Mimi Tachikawa.

---

_Gee, I wonder why Matt was acting so strange just then; _Tai ran a hand through his poofy hair absently. _He just got this strange tight look on his face and then handed me this piece of paper without saying anything! _

Tai reached into his pocket and felt the crumpled note that was in there.

THE FAIL-SAFE GUIDE TO GETTING THE GIRL, the top of the paper proudly stated.

1. Give a lot of compliments to the girl you like.

Tai's brown eyes narrowed as he stared down at the words. _What?? I can't do that! It'd… it'd be weird!!_

"Tai?" Sora was looking over at him.

Tai quickly shoved the paper back into his pocket, his face flushing. "Huh? What's up?" He asked nonchalantly.

They were walking home together, like always. But Tai couldn't act normal around her anymore.

Not after what happened yesterday. Not after he had discovered that his feelings for her were definitely beyond friendship.

Sora was saying something, but he couldn't seem to make sense of her words. Something about introducing him to someone else. Someone called… Cathy? Caitlin?

"Tai!" Sora sounded slightly angry now. "Have you been listening to anything I've been saying?"

She looked critically at her best friend and realized that he had stopped frozen in his path, his teeth gritted and his face bright red and heated.

Tai's heart was beating so fast. Just because the fail-safe guide in his pocket seemed so heavy, just because of the way she talked, how she frowned and scolded him for not listening to her. Why was she so completely oblivious? She had no idea what she was doing to him!!

_What did Matt's note say?? _Tai thought in a panic! _Quick! DO SOMETHING, TAI! Before she finds out!!_

_1. Give a lot of compliments to the girl you like... _

_Bloody hell, I can't belive I'm doing this! _Tai thought to himself, his heart beating out of his chest.

"S-Sora!" He burst out, "Um… uh, your hair looks really nice today!!"

Sora stopped and stared at her best friend. "What?" She looked confused. "Since when did you pay attention to my hair?"

Tai's face flushed. "I… I dunno, just now!!" He exclaimed, flustered. "Y-you look pretty today, Sora!"

Sora's eyes widened. "Um… thanks," she looked away shyly.

Tai's heart beat faster. _Wow! Did that work just then? _

Sora was walking on ahead, and Tai had to run to catch up. As he ran, he reached into his pocket to see what the next step was.

2. Ask her how her day was.

_Well, _Tai frowned, _I've already done that. She is my best friend after all._

3. Act really interested in everything she says.

Tai figured he'd already failed that part.

4. Make her laugh. (But not by telling a really bad or dirty joke, because then she'll think you're a creep. In fact, don't make her laugh by telling a joke at all. Telling jokes is uncool. Make her laugh with your own charm, quick humor and wit.)  
(Oh yeah, and another way to make her laugh is by tickling her. This is a really good way to get her to laugh and then she would probably struggle and start to push you away, at which point you should wrap your arms around her while you are both laughing.)

Tai's facial expression dropped. _What is this? I can't believe Matt wrote all this! Make her laugh? How? Matt doesn't have any quick humor or wit!!_

Tai scowled as he thought really hard. Funny though, 'cause the girls that Matt was constantly surrounded with were always giggling and laughing at everything he said as though it was hilarious.

"Hey, Sora!" Tai called out.

"Yeah?" The red-haired girl turned to look at him.

"Okay, so there was this plane, right? And-"

Sora stared at him. And her expression grew more stunned as Tai paused in the middle of his sentence and turned around to hit his head against the wall.

"Tai?? What on earth are you doing?"

"I can't do it…" Tai moaned, his forehead against the wall. "This is impossible!!"

A worried expression crossed Sora's face. "What's impossible? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know!" Tai mumbled, hitting his head. "I can't remember how the rest of this joke goes anyway!"

Sora smiled. Tai pulled his head away from the wall groggily and look at her in dismay, but was surprised as she suddenly started to laugh!

"You're such an idiot, Tai!" She laughed, her delightful chiming voice stunned Tai as he stared at her wide-eyed. "How can you forget how the joke goes half-way through? Listen, so the plane was about to crash, yeah? And so the pilot said-"

_MAN! THAT WORKED!! _Tai gaped. It actually worked! He couldn't believe it! He made Sora laugh!

_Maybe this guide is really fail-safe! _He thought, heart pumping. Eagerly, he now snuck a look at the next step on the paper.

5. Look cool. Yes, Tai, I mean you! For crying out loud, get a different hairstyle!!

6. Oh, but at the same time, you have to look like a real caring genuine nice guy too.

7. But not too nice, or she'll think that you're a bit of a wimpy loser and she can walk all over you.

8. And you have to act a little bit aloof and mysterious. Really suave, you know what I mean?

Tai felt a sweat-drop run down his face. _'Look cool'? Me? Act suave? And aloof and mysterious but caring and genuine at the same time?? Matt, you moron! It's impossible! _

Tai felt his hands tremble as he ripped the paper out of his pocket and scrunched it up into a tiny crumpled ball.

"What's that?" Sora asked suddenly.

_Crap. _"Huh? Oh, it's nothing!" Tai said hurriedly.

"Let me see," Sora said, reaching over and easily plucking it out of Tai's hand. She unraveled the crumpled paper and read the large title. "The fail-safe guide to getting the girl, huh?" She looked up at Tai. "You jerk! I never knew you were so shallow!"

"I'm sorry! It's not like that!"

"Sure it is! 'Give a lot of compliments to the girl you like'? 'Make her laugh'?" Sora's voice was wobbly as she gritted her teeth and glared at Tai. "Is that why you told me my hair looked nice? You didn't actually think it looked nice, you just wanted to try out this 'fail-safe' guide on me!!"

"I wasn't trying it out on you!" Tai shouted. _I actually like you, okay? I just… I LIKE YOU, DAMMIT!! _

Sora stood there, her red eyes flashing in anger, Matt's guide clenched in her hand. Her voice fell a little as she muttered, "You're a moron, Tai."

"I told you, I wasn't 'trying it out' on you!!"

"Who is it, then?" Sora snapped. "If you like a girl, then who is it?"

Tai couldn't answer.

"Liar." Sora said, scrunching up the paper in her hands and throwing it at Tai, who caught it and stared at her. "You don't actually like a girl, do you? You really were trying out that fail-safe guide on me just so you could use it on some other girl next time."

"It's not like that, Sora!" Tai exclaimed.

"Okay." Sora said slowly, softer. "Okay then. What is it actually like?"

"Sora, listen," Tai said slowly. "I… You… We're best friends, Sora. But I…" His heart raced and his face burnt bright red. "I… I just can't think of you as a best friend anymore!!"

Sora stared at him. And then she spoke, and the anger had completely left her voice. "Why not?" Her voice was now very hurt.

"Huh?" Tai looked at her. She must've missed something. "What? No, I meant-"

"I'm sorry for yelling at you, Tai." Sora said softly. "If that's why, then I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lose my temper."

She straightened up and took a deep breath, composing herself. "I was going to tell you my advice for 'getting a girl'. You don't have to follow some lame shallow guide like this. Tai, all you ever had to do was be yourself."

Tai was wide-eyed, completely flabbergasted and confused.

"But I guess… you don't want to be my best friend anymore, then?" Sora said, looking down at her feet. She swallowed with difficulty and looked up at Tai seriously. "I guess you'd rather be taking Matt's advice on how to get a girl rather than mine."

"Wait, Sora, you don't get it! That's not what I meant!"

"I don't get it, do I?" she smiled sadly. "That's why we can't be best friends anymore, right?"

"See you, Tai." And she walked quickly down the street without him.

Tai stared after her, the girl of his dreams, his now formerbest friend. _NOOO!! _He screamed in his head, _that's not what I meant, that's not what I meant at all!! _

Sora had completely misunderstood Tai's confession.

---

"Huh? Tai?" Matt looked up from the magazine he was reading. "You don't usually come over after school. What's up?"

Tai smiled pleasantly at the blonde boy and stretched out his hand, which had Matt's crumpled guide in it. "I came to return this,"

"Oh!" Matt said, "You came to thank me and praise me for helping you out with my marvelous guide, right? It worked, didn't it? I told you it was fail-safe! After all, it was written by me! Hey, didn't I tell you to get a different hairstyle, Tai-?"

Tai still had a lovely radiant smile on his face.

"Tai?" Matt looked at his beaming friend. "How was it…?"

Tai grinned as hard as he could, gritting his teeth at the same time and suddenly it was as though an icy rush of wind had cut through Matt's room.

"Absolute crap."

**Thanks for reading! ^_^ I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! Oh! And you see that lovely green button down there? Yes, that one, right there! That is the GREEN REVIEW BUTTON OF JOY! And it would make a lovely Christmas present! Thankyou very much! ^_^ And have a Merry Christmas! **


	7. There is No Mathematics to Love

**Digimon does not belong to me! If it did, Tai and Sora would be together, and I wouldn't be writing this!! Thankyou so much to everyone for the reviews! ^_^ Hope you enjoy this next chapter just as much! **

**Chapter 7: There is No Mathematics to Love**

"I don't get it! How could she misunderstand me like that?" Tai complained loudly, leaning back on his chair.

"Maybe its cause you told her you didn't think of her as a best friend anymore," Mimi said absentmindedly, texting on her mobile phone as she sat next to Tai.

Tai stopped leaning backwards and straightened up, rocking forward and hitting the desk with his elbows, a frown on his face.

"But that's not what I meant!" and the poor boy let out a world-weary sigh. He simply didn't understand, could not work out the complex infrastructure known as the female mind.

Tai and Mimi were sitting at their desks in Maths class. As usual, class time was used for talking and mucking about, not actual learning. Since Tai was pretty good friends with Mimi and Mimi was Sora's closest friend after Tai, he figured that she might be able to tell him what had happened.  
After all, girls were weird. He and Sora might be best friends, well, _were_ best friends until now; but their best friendship was different from others. Sora was still a girl, like every other girl, and had to talk and chatter with Mimi and her other girlfriends constantly. In the same way, Tai needed his mates to talk and mess around with.

_But STILL! _Tai felt like tearing his hair out. _IT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T BE BEST FRIENDS!! _

Mimi actually put down her phone, and turned to look at Tai with a serious expression on her face. "Then what _did_ you mean?"

Tai's voice was stuck in his throat and at once, his face began heating up. He tried to pull himself together, find his voice. He tried to chuckle. "Eh, wait?" he managed.

Mimi wasn't going to fall for it. Her brown eyes were narrowed as she stared at him. "You told Sora that you didn't think of her as a best friend anymore. But you didn't mean that in the way that she took it."

Suddenly, Mimi paused and her eyes widened a little as though something had just clicked. And then, a small smirk pulled at her lips and she snickered, "What other way could you have meant it?"

"Huh?" Tai felt his pulse increase. "What? What are you talking about?" His voice came out harried and nervous. His cheeks slowly turned red.

Mimi ignored him and went on to look at Sora, sitting near the front of the classroom. She had greeted Tai this morning, but it was obvious she had been giving him the silent treatment since then. Mimi turned her head back and looked at Tai, who was sinking down deeper into his chair.

"Tai!" Her voice came out accusingly, and Tai cringed. "You _like _her, don't you?"

"What?" Tai said automatically, "No! No, of course not, what on earth made you think that? There's no way- Oh, who am I kidding?" Tai sighed and slumped over.

Mimi looked at Tai incredously. And her smirk deepened.

Tai flushed. "Okay!" He burst out, "Leave me alone! I like Sora! So what?" He was meant to sound angry and defensive, but failed, his voice sinking fainter and desperate as he face-planted himself into the desk, covering up his red face with his hands.

Mimi smiled to herself as she picked up her phone and started texting again.

---

"Matt? What's up?" Tai frowned at his blonde friend, who was being surprisingly silent all day.

"…Nothing," Matt replied, somewhat sullenly, closing his locker door heavily, ignoring the love letters that were falling out and getting caught in the door.

"No, seriously," Tai walked faster to catch up with his friend. "What's up? Are you okay?"

It was strange to see his usually cheeky friend be so quiet. Tai knew that Matt often acted shallow and superficial at school, when the girls were constantly throwing themselves at him, but he knew Matt much better than that.

Matt continued to ignore Tai, but as a group of girls passed by, he casually lifted a hand and smiled gorgeously at them, causing them to trip over each other as they turned back to gaze in awe at him.

"Matt! Wait up!" Tai cried out and gritting his teeth had to run through the crowded corridor. "Tell me what's wrong?"

But just then, walking right past him was Sora, and Tai had no choice but to stop and turn, stare at her as she passed by. She was still giving Tai the silent treatment, and didn't even lift her head to look at him. She went on her way, with Mimi beside her, talking cheerfully.

"Tai…"

Tai was surprised to see that Matt had also stopped ahead of him in the corridor. The blonde boy turned around slowly, his icy blue eyes flashing angrily.

"…yeah?" he looked at his scary friend.

"I saw you talking with Mimi during Maths today." Matt deadpanned, "How come you wouldn't tell me who you liked?"

"What?" Tai was stunned, his face suddenly growing pink.

"Don't try to deny it!" Matt snapped. "I'm like your best mate! Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"But-" Tai started.

"I'm not stupid!" Matt said, his eyes narrowed as he pointed a finger at Tai accusingly. "It's Mimi, isn't it?"

Tai stared gobsmacked at Matt. "…what?"

"Like I said, you were talking to her this morning. And yesterday, I did see you looking at her! And just then, you turned around just as she walked past." Matt said, his voice getting faster.

"No, no, no, no, no, Matt!!" Tai burst out. "You're wrong!!"

Matt stopped, and his eyes widened. As though he couldn't possibly believe that he could be wrong. "What?" For some reason, he couldn't help feeling a little bit relieved.

_Wait! This is stupid, _Matt shook his head. _Why am I relieved? _He snuck a look down the corridor at Mimi and sniffed to himself. _Ha, I'm just glad Tai's not stupid enough to fall for someone as annoying and bossy as her!_

Tai's face was bright red. "It's not Mimi, okay?" He said, "It's…" Tai scowled and glared down at the ground, his face flushing. "…Sora," he muttered.

"Oh." Matt blinked. "Oh." And then, almost as fast as he had snapped and lost his temper, his impertinent grin was back on his face. "In that case…" The blonde walked back over to Tai and slung an arm around his shoulder, "Why don't you ask her out already?"

Tai was confused. Matt really marched to the beat of his own drum. Just a second ago, he was acting angry and now here he was, all chummy and charming again.

"But- I-I can't!" Tai cried. "She's… she's my best friend!!"

At Matt's cynical look, Tai added, sullenly, "…well, she _was._"

Tai turned, but down the hallway, Sora was already gone.

---

It was the afternoon after a long school day. Tai wandered miserably from his locker to the oval for soccer training, his gear bag slung over one shoulder. Sora had been ignoring him all day!! He kept trying to find her and apologize! Even if she went back to thinking they were best friends, it'd be better than being ignored by her! 'cause he very much preferred for her to be beside him, rather than acting like he didn't exist. He'd rather her not notice that he thought of her as more than a friend, than not have her friendship at all.

"Tai!"

He could recognize that voice anywhere!

"Sora!" He turned to face her, his heart beating faster, so glad that she was talking to him! But then his heart quickly fell.

She wasn't quite meeting his gaze, her eyes were lowered somewhat to the ground and her delightful smile was nowhere on her face. Beside her stood her friend, a girl with long blonde hair whom Tai had seen before.

"Tai," she said quietly, till not quite meeting his eyes and smiling faintly. "I wanna introduce you to my friend. This is Catherine."

Tai blinked in confusion, and then forced a smile. "Hi,"

Catherine smiled and blushed. Tai raised a hand to his head and scratched his brown hair thoughtfully.

"Um…" Catherine bowed her head, her face flushed. "Actually, I've been watching you for a while, Tai, and I've seen all your soccer matches and I…"

Tai watched the blonde girl stammer out her words quietly, flushing the whole time. Looking up, he realized that Sora was carefully walking away, leaving the two of them alone together.

He couldn't help it, watching his former best friend- the girl of his dreams- walk away like that…

"I… I'm sorry!" He burst out, bowing his head to Catherine in apology; and running down the corridor as fast as he could after Sora.

---

"Sora!! SORAA!! Wait!!" Tai shouted as he went tearing down the corridor and down the stairs, out onto the pavement.

He knew she could hear him, but damn, that girl was still as feisty and stubborn as ever!

_Dammit!! _Tai swore under his breath as he ran even faster. His gear bag was thudding against his side heavily and he was going to be late for soccer training if he kept running in the other direction!

"SORA!!" He screamed out.

_What's the big idea? Dammit, Sora, I will never understand you girls! So we had an argument yesterday! You wouldn't even give me the chance to explain!! You say hi to me this morning and then ignore me for the rest of the day!! What the hell? _

_Why are you introducing me to some other girl now?? _

Tai breathed hard, but didn't stop running. He could still see Sora in front of him, her red hair glinting in the sunlight.

"SORA! LISTEN TO ME!!" He shouted, finally catching up to her, reaching up to her and grabbing her arm.

She turned grudgingly, her red eyes irritated, refusing to look at him. "_What_?"

"Why have you been ignoring me all day? And what was with that just then?" He demanded.

"You're the one who said you didn't want to be best friends with me anymore!" She retorted, and her voice was angry, but her facial expression was obviously hurt.

"But you didn't give me any chance to explain! And you've been avoiding me all day!"

"Fine," Sora snapped. And she crossed her arms and stood there, staring at Tai. "Give me an explanation."

"I didn't mean it yesterday," Tai tried to sound as genuine as possible. "Sora, you're my… best friend." he managed to say, even though he knew he was lying and damn, it _hurt _to even say that.

Sora- lovely, beautiful Sora just stood there, her red eyes focused on him cynically. Finally, her gaze softened a little.

"I'm sorry, Sora!" He said, "I'm sorry that we had a misunderstanding, that we had an argument yesterday. But I really, really am sorry, Sora! And I can't stand it when we're not talking, when you're ignoring me all day, can't we just…"

And he knew he was lying to himself, and he felt his heart break all the time while he was speaking. Tai lowered his gaze so that she couldn't see his eyes. "Can't we just… be best friends again?"

Sora's eyes were wide and he looked up again to look at her dear sweet face.

He had to clench his hands into fists and gather up all his courage to keep talking. "'cause I _do _think of you as a best friend!" he said seriously. And as he kept going, he felt his heart sink deeper with every word. "You will _always _be my best friend, Sora!"

And Tai watched her critically. And slowly, Sora smiled, her lovely honest smile.

"You idiot, Taichi." she said bluntly and pulled a face at him. She laughed a little and walked up to him and hugged him quickly. Tai felt his face flush.

"It's okay!" she said cheerfully. "We'll always be best friends forever, Tai!"

But hearing those words seemed to make it hurt even more. And having her hug him so quickly, just like that, made him feel empty as she left.

"Oh yeah!" Sora turned around for a moment. "You really are a dolt, Tai! Catherine's been wanting to meet you for ages! She even wrote you a love letter, but you stupidly threw it away!"

"Ehh? What?" Tai cried, his face turning red.

Sora grinned cheekily. "I think she _likes _you," she sang teasingly.

_What? WHY?? _Tai thought desperately. He gazed forlornly at the girl walking away from him. _Yeah. Just my luck. To get introduced to a girl by the girl I like. _

Tai watched his 'best friend' walk away, his heart thumping painfully with each step she took. He couldn't help it, suddenly, she turned around again and he was shocked and there was this stupid hope that seemed to jump inside him.

Sora was sticking out her tongue at him. "Why are you still standing there, Tai? You're already late for soccer training!!"

"…what?" Tai blinked. "AHHH CRAP!!"

And Taichi Kamiya went running crazily through the school again.

**Sora has spunk! Actually, I've written so many taioras, but I never really got a chance to show Sora's feistiness and stubbornness! After all, who didn't love ****Sora and Tai's fight in Digimon the movie? I needed a chapter title and it just popped up suddenly from an Anberlin song that started playing! I'm also afraid that Matt's appearing really shallow and stupid currently, so I'll have to do a bit of developing on his part. FEED ME REVIEWS!! …please! ^_^ **


	8. I Crashed and Burned At Your Feet

**Helloooo!! Thanks for all the reviews! Just so you know, I'm guessing we're about halfway through the plot right now. And you should all take a deep breath and prepare yourself mentally and physically for this coming chapter, because as Lemony Snicket says, there are much more pleasant things to read. Pfft. What am I saying? This is a comedy! Ahh… but my friends, sometimes, comedies may be miserable!**

**I warned you. Here's chapter 8! Read and review! ^_^**

Tai had just been introduced to someone by the girl he hopelessly liked. The girl, unfortunately, happened to be his best friend.

**Chapter 8: I Crashed and Burned At Your Feet**

"What's wrong with you, Matt?" Tai frowned at his blonde friend sitting next to him.

The blonde boy was stretched down over his desk, icy blue eyes directed towards the front of the room, glaringly poisonous.

_You're not even the one in my situation, _thought Tai with a sigh, as he leant back and looked upwards at the ceiling with a weary expression. _Sora… _He found his thoughts drifting back to her again.

Matt didn't reply to Tai's question. Instead, his eyes narrowed and he practically hissed with hatred. Tai followed Matt's gaze up to the front of the classroom, where it settled on a certain pink-haired girl.

Mimi seemed completely oblivious to the hate waves being directed at her from the back of the classroom. This ticked Matt off, because usually she would be turning and pulling faces straight back at him.

Mimi was distracted due to her attention being directed at a very attractive boy in her class. The very attractive boy, however, was not Yamato Ishida.

Matt was gripping onto his pen so hard that his knuckles were white and trembling slightly as he continued glaring.

She was giggling! The nerve of that girl! Giggling like that without a care in the world, with her air-headed ditzyness and nodding as though she was actually listening to what that boy was saying! Matt's eyes narrowed and his fingers tightened even harder on his pen. How dare she!!

Of course, that guy wasn't completely innocent either, Matt fumed. The bastard was casually playing with his brown curly hair and lazily looking at Mimi as he kept talking, a smile on his lips as though he was _enjoying _her company!

"…She thinks we're best friends,"Tai mumbled to himself, drawing stick figures in his workbook.

"I hate her…!" Matt had now moved the end of the pen to his mouth and had it clenched in his gritted teeth, his icy blue eyes still fixed at the same spot.

Mimi and the boy next to her were still deep in conversation, Mimi laughing at every joke he said, and him smiling endearingly at her in response to everything she said. Her cheeks were slightly pink; he was a very good-looking boy. He didn't take his eyes off her as though she was the only girl for him.

"AH! SH-"

Tai was stunned out of his reverie by a stream of swear words coming from Matt. He had broken the pen, crushing the plastic casing with his hand and spilling the blue ink all over his hand, his sleeve and his schoolwork.

"This is all _her _fault!" Matt snapped.

"Eh?" Tai glanced up at his friend before absently looking down at his exercise book, where he flushed and hastily scribbled over the two stick figures holding hands.

Wanting to get back at Mimi, Matt took a deep breath and then shouted out, "Oi! Mimi!"

Mimi turned, confused, looking back at him.

Matt was talking enchantingly to two girls at the next desk, his charming smile on full blast.

Frowning, the puzzled girl turned back.

Immediately, Matt whipped back to his former position of glaring at the front of the classroom.

Tai snorted. "That was lame, Matt!"

"Lame?" Matt's face went red as he shot back, "Not as lame as your little stick figure drawings!"

"What??" Tai squawked, face burning.

---

"Why don't you just tell her?" Joe said simply as he closed his locker door carefully.

Tai looked dubiously at his glasses-wearing friend. "Easy for you to say, Joe! You're all happy and lovey-dovey with your girlfriend."

Joe coughed and blushed, obviously proud of himself.

"Come to think of it," Tai said, "How did a shy quiet boy like you ask out a hot girl like her?"

Joe adjusted his glasses with a tiny smile. "You never know until you try," he said softly. Shyly, he turned from his locker and away from Tai, where it just so happened that his adorable girlfriend was waiting across the corridor for him.

Tai watched the happy couple walk off down the hallway and sighed to himself.

"You never know until you try, huh?" He murmured to himself.

---

"Ahh…!" Mimi looked surprised and she blushed slightly. "You don't have to wait for me, Shin."

The boy smiled and casually leaned back against the wall, amidst the bustle of the students moving past. Nearby, a throng of awestruck girls were gasping and whispering about the hot guy.

"…no…" Shin replied, with a charming smile. And then he coughed a little, as though embarrassed. "I… I just wanted to talk to you for a moment before I have to leave."

Mimi flushed and concentrated very hard on choosing which books to take home and which books to leave in her locker. The usually talkative pink-haired girl was suddenly at a loss of words, very shy as she avoided looking at the boy.

_You never know until you try. _Tai thought glumly to himself as he closed his own locker door shut. He sighed to himself. Yeah. Sora thought that they were best friends.

"_You idiot, Taichi. We'll always be best friends forever, Tai!"_

Tai's face burned and he shook his head hard to compose himself. For crying out loud, why did she have to say that? And why did she have to say it like _that?_ With her cute pout and then her delightful smile. She was so relieved and so happy to be "best friends", but Tai…

Tai sighed heavily and absentmindedly knocked his fist against the locker door, making a nice resounding metal thud.

"What was that for, Tai?" Sora had stopped there, her arms full of her schoolbooks, a puzzled expression on her face. "What did the locker ever do to you?" She asked, with a joking grin.

Tai was speechless. Suddenly, all his words were gone, he couldn't even string together proper sentences. But heck, she was his _best friend! _He couldn't get all tongue-tied around her!!

_You never know until you try. _Tai swallowed with difficulty. "Hey, Sora,"

"Yeah?"

The swarm and crowd of students pressed past them, struggling to get through the packed corridor, students trying to remember the combinations on their locks. It was noisy.

Tai frowned. He tried to look at her straight in the eyes, tried to think of exactly how to explain, what words to use exactly. But…

Tai dropped his head. "No, never mind."

She threw him a questioning look, but then shrugged with a slight smile, before moving along with the crowd towards her own locker. And Tai knocked his forehead against his locker, listening to that dull thud again.

That dull thud sounded just like the empty echo in his chest.

---

The corridors were finally emptying out now. The last few students were finishing up at their lockers, the majority of the crowd slowly trickling out the doorways, or heading upstairs for their after-school clubs and activities.

Mimi stood opposite Shin, who was still leaning against the wall, looking gorgeous as always.

"Mimi," he said with a smile. "I just wanted to say…"

"Yeah?" Mimi looked up at him shyly.

"I always have a lot of fun talking to you and stuff; and we… have quite a lot of things in common, so I was wondering if maybe…"

Her face was very close to his. Shin's sentence trailed off and never finished, as he stared down into her eyes. She was embarrassed, her face pink, but she made no effort to look away. They held each other's gaze for a while, and their faces… were so close…

Shin leant down and-

"OI! TACHIKAWA!!"

The two of them jerked apart from each other in horror, bumping their heads and trying to stammer out apologies, Mimi's face bright red and Shin looking away, biting his lip.

Yamato Ishida stood at the other end of the corridor, his face seemingly furious and red with anger.

Mimi's embarrassment vanished immediately. "What the hell is wrong with you, Matt?" She demanded.

"Shut up!!" Matt snapped, storming down the corridor towards her.

"Hey," Shin spoke up, "Don't talk to her like-"

But Matt had already grabbed Mimi's arm and was dragging her away with him.

"What is your problem?" Mimi shrieked. "Let go of me!"

Matt didn't let go, instead holding on tighter, his blue eyes narrowed on her.

"You always have to get in the way of everything!" Her voice grew hysterical as she refused to look at him.

"Look at me!" Matt shouted.

"No!" She pulled away from him again. "You're such a jerk…" Her voice faltered down to a whimper.

"For crying out loud, listen to me, will you?"

Mimi glared down, away from him, her fists clenched.

Matt took a deep breath, and tried to sound rational. "Listen, Mimi, don't… don't get involved with that guy, okay? I…" He frowned, letting out a slow breath. "I… I know his type."

'_cause he's the same as me. _

"He… he doesn't really like you!" Matt insisted. "He'll just date you and then throw you away, and go onto the next girl!"

"…Is that yourself you're describing?" Mimi said coldly.

Matt's temper snapped. "I'm just telling you to stay away from him!!"

"It's none of your business!! You ruin _everything!_" She shrieked, stamping her foot like a little girl.

For a moment, Matt was shocked that he could hear tears in her voice, but then he quickly told himself it was nothing. Besides, what did he care if she cried?

"You jerk!" With a final tug, she pulled her arm away from him. And then she stood there, breathing hard, glaring at him.

And then she saw that behind him, Shin was still standing there, wide-eyed and stunned. And Mimi's face turned red and her lips trembled.

"I HATE YOU, YAMATO ISHIDA!!"

Matt could only watch as she turned and ran away.

---

"…Sora…!" Tai burst out, panting a little as he stopped by her locker.

"Huh?" Sora turned and smiled at her best friend. "Oh, I just forgot to pick something up. Aren't you meant to be at soccer training?"

Tai looked down at his soccer boots. "Yeah… I just… I just saw you coming back here, so I was wondering why and I…"

…_I just wanted to talk to you again._

"I'm in a bit of a hurry," Sora said apologetically, "I have to run back and meet up with my friends at the shops."

"Sora."

"Hm?" She blinked, looking back at him, confused.

Tai bit his lip, his fists clenched, brown eyes serious. "Actually, I had to tell you something,"

And his heart was beating so crazily out of his chest, and he still didn't know how to say it, how to explain anything. And he didn't know what to expect, and crap, what if she reacted horribly? What if- what if…?

But he didn't have _time _to stress and worry over all this, heck; he had just been pushed so close to the edge that if he didn't do it _now, _then he'd _never _do it! It was just… right now, he was feeling so strongly about it all, and right now…

_Aw crap._

"I like you, Sora." Tai said.

"…that's nice. Thankyou, Tai," she replied, rummaging around in her locker.

Tai stared at her. And then, his chest ached even more, and he clenched his fists even tighter as he burst out: "No! That's not it!"

Sora turned slowly to face him, the book she had been looking for clutched in her hands. She was frowning, her red eyes focused straight at him.

"It's not like that, okay?" His voice grew louder as he stared at her desperately. "It's not the way you think it is!"

She didn't know what to say; just kept looking at him with those wide, wide red eyes and that book clutched in her pale fingers.

"I tried to tell you before!" Tai burst out, his voice tinged with pain. "I tried to tell you before, but you misunderstood me! I… I _like _you, Sora! But it's not the way you think it is! You… you _are _my best friend, but I… I don't just think of you like that! I really… I really, _really like you. _I like you… way more than a best friend should…"

And Tai's voice broke and he bowed his head sorrowfully, standing there in his soccer gear, his heart aching as it beat against his ribcage.

"Do you…" he lifted his head up and looked at her meaningfully with sad brown eyes. "…Do you get it now?"

The book Sora was holding slipped and dropped to the floor, with an empty, hollow clatter.

The pain was obvious on her face. And she lowered her head and whispered:

"I'm sorry, Tai."

His chest felt just like the way that book had clattered to the floor just now. Empty. Hollow. Bloody hell, it hurt.

"I'm really sorry," she said again, and slowly lifted her head to face him, breathing out slowly. "I… never noticed that you felt that way. But I…"

And the expression that crossed her face was unbearable, it practically killed him. Because she cared so much for him, she was so sorry, and there was that pity in her eyes, that guilt of having to hurt him like this…

"I only think of you as a friend, Tai." she said honestly, looking at him straight in the face, before dropping her gaze sadly down to the floor. "You're my _best friend_, Tai. I just can't… I just can't start thinking of you as more than that."

He felt like he'd just been sliced open and pinned to a board. Like he'd been run over by a truck after being put through a meat-grinder. He felt like Sora was tossing his heart up and down in her hand and wondering what to do with it. And she'd just accidentally dropped it onto the floor with a dull thud.

And her feet looked so delicate there in her shoes, uncertain on the floor.

And bloody hell, he liked her _so much_, cared for her so much, loved her sweet personality and how she was always so caring, but now… He couldn't handle her concern and care.

She was looking up at him again, reaching out an arm for him. "I'm sorry," she said again, the guilt heavy on her face. "I… I didn't… want to hurt you or anything. 'cause you're… you're still my best friend. If…" her voice faltered, "If you're angry or hurt at me… I don't blame you, and if you… you don't think we can be best friends anymore, then… then I…"

Sora had to take a big breath to continue. "…then I… don't mind- not if that's what you think. But just _please, _at least… still be my friend, Tai…"

"No," said Tai.

She stared at him, crushed.

"No," he said again, looking around everywhere but at her, trying to find the composure to pull himself together.

"…oh," her voice was so very, very small.

"No, it's okay, Sora." his voice sounded very calm.

Tai grinned.

She stared.

"It's okay, Sora," Tai chuckled light-heartedly. He shrugged. "I understand, I don't mind."

"But-"

"No, seriously," Tai said, "I understand! Of course! We've always been best friends; it'd be silly if we were anything else!"

"But, Tai-"

He smiled sincerely at her. "I'm okay, really! We can be best friends, Sora! Just like always! Just forget about anything I ever said, okay?"

"Tai…" Sora was staring at him painfully.

"Have fun with your friends, all right?" He said cheerfully, as he ran off down the hall.

He was smiling so hard that his cheeks hurt.

_**I told you so.**_** Tch, depressing, wasn't it? Chapters like that really take it out of me. **__**There was a big jump from the mood in the first part of this chapter to the ending part. This Tai and Sora rejection scene was planned a long time ago. In fact, I wrote this fic just to put that scene in it. Anyway, as I said before, we're about halfway through! There is still plenty more to come! And heck, I can smell the Mimato goodness already. Hmm… Review, review, review!! ….please! ^_^**


	9. Just Be Friends

**Hellooo everybody!! SORRY SORRY SORRY for the very long wait! I've been beat from everything, having finished my hitsukarin fic, as well as being steamrolled over by all the work for my first book, which is coming out this year! _ Anyway, here's your long-awaited chapter!! Please enjoy and review!**

"_I'm okay, really! We can be best friends, Sora! Just like always! Just forget about anything I ever said, okay?" _

"Sora? What's wrong?" Catherine asked.

"Huh?" The red-haired girl looked at her blonde friend for a moment, blinking. "Oh, no. I'm fine,"

Sora looked up ahead at the brown-haired boy talking and joking around with his friends down the corridor.

_Tai… _

**Chapter 9: Just Be Friends**

"Tai! How's it going, mate?"

Tai felt one of his soccer buddies thump him on the arm and winced. "You didn't have to hit me so hard, dude!"

"Pshh! It takes a lot more than that to hurt our star soccer player, you know!"

Tai laughed as another teammate came and slung an arm energetically around his neck. "We've got soccer practice after school today, Captain! No being late again, you hear?"

"Yeah! You've been late to the last two training sessions! What's with that?"

Tai smiled, but inside he felt hollow. _Oh yeah… that's right. Both those times I had been chasing after Sora. _His eyes darkened as he thought back to what had happened the other day. _Of course, Sora could only ever think of me as a friend._

_I guess… that's the way it'll always be, huh? _He thought to himself and chuckled cynically.

---

"…What the heck is that girl's problem??" Matt snarled.

"What?" Tai asked, somewhat absently.

"Tachikawa!" Matt exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air. "She won't speak to me! It's been a whole day!! She keeps ignoring me!"

_Knowing you, I'm not surprised. _"Why do you even care?" Tai asked innocently. "I thought you couldn't stand Mimi."

This only irritated Matt even more. "Exactly! So who does she think she is, not speaking to me like this!"

"You must've done something worse than usual to piss her off so much," Tai said. "What did you do?"

Matt grumbled and sunk down lower into his seat, resting his chin stubbornly on the desk and thought back on how he had interrupted Mimi and Shin's near kiss. His face flushed and he looked away. "Nothing."

The two friends looked up at the front of the classroom, where Mimi had pointedly not turned around the whole lesson, not even to glare at Matt. Beside her was Shin, smiling charmingly and making pleasant conversation with her as usual.

Tai watched the eraser bounce off Mimi's chair and land on the floor next to the rest of the contents of Matt's pencil case.

"…Somehow I don't think throwing things at her is going to help, Matt."

---

"Sora?"

"Yeah? What's up, Catherine?" She looked critically over at her friend, who was sitting beside her.

Catherine looked down at her desk, with a frown on her desk. She kept turning the pencil in her hand over and over again. Then, she lifted her head and looked over at a desk near the back of the room.

Sitting at the desk was a blonde boy with a furious scowl and a pencil case that was practically empty. Next to him with a doubtful look on his face was a brown-haired soccer player.

Sora didn't have to follow Catherine's gaze very far to know where she was looking. Catherine looked wistful, her face slightly pink, before she lowered her gaze away again.

Sora was silent. Then she smiled knowingly. "Oh."

She snuck a glance at Tai herself, feeling her heart sink, thinking of what had happened between them.

She took a deep breath and tried to pull herself together.

---

Mimi was leaving her Maths class when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.

"…eh? Shin?" Her face turned pink.

He smiled a little. "Uh, I'm in a hurry, I've got to catch a bus, but before I go, I've just got to ask…"

"Yeah?"

"Um… about yesterday…" he shyly ran a hand through his hair.

Mimi flushed bright red, embarrassed. "Yeah?"

They both stood there, at the side of the corridor, watching the rest of the students swarm past them. Both of their faces were bright red remembering the embarrassing interruption yesterday.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to do something with me this Friday." Shin said with a small smile.

Mimi blushed. "This Friday?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "We could go see a movie or something… y'know… like…"

"…a date?" Mimi whispered.

He nodded solemnly again.

Mimi brightened and smiled an adorable smile. "Um, yeah! I would love to-"

"Sorry. She's busy." A new voice cut into the conversation.

"…what?" Shin frowned.

Mimi turned around and immediately her hackles went up. "MATT!!"

"You heard me," Matt said, ignoring Mimi, "I said she's busy on Friday."

"Wait, Matt!! You-"

"Then how about Saturday?" Shin attempted.

"No can do, man. Saturday's taken too."

"MATT! YOU LISTEN TO ME, I-"

"Anyway, since Mimi's so busy, I guess it's just too bad!" Matt said with a sympathetic sigh and a shrug. Then turning around before Shin could utter a reply, he grabbed Mimi's wrist and pulled her away.

Mimi was furious. "MATT! Let go of me!! What the hell was that for? I HATE YOU!!" She spat out.

"Shut up," Matt growled through gritted teeth. Shin was still nearby and listening to Mimi scream.

"Oi." Shin was calling out to the two of them from down the corridor. The hallway was slowly clearing up. "Ishida, what are you up to?"

Mimi started to agree with Shin and retort that Matt was a horrible selfish liar, but Matt clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Nothing," he said nonchalantly. "…didn't you have a bus to catch?"

---

_This isn't so bad! _Tai thought to himself through gritted teeth. _This isn't too hard at all! _

Tai snuck a look at the red-haired girl walking beside him without a care in the world and felt his heart ache. _…not._

_This is all my fault!! _Tai sighed silently. _I never should've said anything! What was I thinking? _

It had yesterday when he'd admitted his feelings to her and was rejected. The worst thing was, what that hurt the most was that Sora was so sorry about it. It had cut him, watching how sorry she was, so concerned about him, about hurting him. Because it meant that she had only seen him as a best friend.

He'd told her to forget about it, forget that he'd ever said anything, and looking at her now it seemed like she had. She had no problem pretending that it had never happened; the one that couldn't forget it was himself.

_AHH! CRAP!! _Tai screamed to himself in his head. _Why did I have to go and do that for, for crying out loud! I didn't have to tell her how I felt! What was I thinking? If I hadn't opened my big mouth then everything would be okay right now, it wouldn't… it wouldn't be like this!! _

"Hey… Tai?" Sora spoke up suddenly.

Tai almost fell over. His whole face went bright red and he tried to shake himself out of it, gritting his teeth. "Y-yeah? What is it?" It was as though his voice was too loud.

She looked at him for moment, red eyes searching. Then her voice lowered as she murmured, "I'm sorry, Tai."

He felt his heart ache a little. "N-no!" he cried. "I told you, it's okay! It doesn't matter, just forget about it! Seriously, I told you before…"

Sora looked up at him seriously.

He felt his heart beating out of his chest. He couldn't meet her gaze; he looked away and said, quickly, strongly,_ lied_: "It'll be okay."

And he smiled at her, harder than he ever had before.

Sora blinked.

Smiling, he tightened his grip on the schoolbag slung over his shoulder and started to walk ahead of her. "C'mon, Sora! You wanna go to the arcade before I walk you home?"

She looked wide-eyed at him for a moment; before her face broke out into the delightful smile he loved the most. "Okay!!"

---

"OW!!" Matt swore as he ripped his hand away from Mimi's mouth, looking down in horror at the bite marks.

Mimi was positively quivering in ager and crossing her arms angrily across her chest started to stomp off away from him.

"What the heck was that for??" Matt shouted.

"What do you think??" Mimi snapped. "I hate you! You dickhead!"

Matt glowered at her for a moment, before looking down at his aching hand and then snickering to himself.

"Hey, Mimi!" He called out as he hurried to catch up to her.

"What do you want _now_??" She hissed, marching off with a flick of her long pink hair.

He couldn't help himself; a wicked grin appeared on his face. There was nothing he enjoyed more than bugging her, pissing her off, and generally being a jerk. "You doing anything on Friday? How about this weekend?"

Mimi stiffened and slowed down for a moment. She looked angry at first and then for a second, her face fell and looked genuinely upset. "…nothing anymore. Thanks to you."

Matt suddenly felt a little off balance watching her disappointed face. Quickly snapping himself out of it, he grinned mischievously again.

"What?" Mimi looked at him suspiciously.

"In that case, since I suppose it was partly _my_ fault, I'll take you out somewhere."

"What?" Mimi looked like she'd swallowed something bad.

"You heard me," Matt said quickly, shrugging and shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'll take you out on Friday."

---

"Tai! Tai!"

Tai turned around to see his best friend running up to him, in her hands two ice cream cones. He grinned back at her and Sora held out his favourite flavor to him.

_I can do this, _he thought uneasily to himself as he took the ice cream from Sora and then watched her grin carefreely up at him.

_I'm such a moron… and I'm totally screwed… but… _

He felt like he was holding his breath when he was with her, because he had to be careful now. He had to hold back, stop himself from wanting to hug her, from wanting to hold her every time she smiled at him. But he didn't mind… not really...

He was such a liar. He told her he didn't mind. That nothing mattered anymore, it'd be all right, they'd always just be best friends, nothing would change. But it was too late. Inside, he kept hurting but he'd grit his teeth and bear it.

"Tai?" Sora was saying, cheerful- without a care, so unlike him right now.

"Yeah?" He looked down at her.

It had been okay. It wasn't so hard to forget for a moment, just hang out at the video game arcade like they always used to do. _We're best friends. _He thought to himself, over and over again. _We're best friends; we'll always be best friends and nothing else._

Sora was quiet for a moment, her red eyes distant. For a moment, it looked as though she, too, was in pain.

And then she looked up and smiled at him. "Tai, would you… do a favor for me?"

And he smiled at her the way he always did, ignoring his own pain, because she was his best friend. "Yeah?"

'cause after all it was better to be hurting beside her than not be with her at all.

**End of chapter 9! Once again, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! I know this chapter is LATE LATE LATE!! *assumes dogeza position and bows repeatedly*. I know this chapter was kinda filler with so much Mimato, but I'm setting the stage for Sora to take over. Yup, you heard right! This is the last time you'll hear from Tai personally in this fic! I guess you can say we're halfway through- Sora's side of the story is starting next chapter!! Sorry again for the loooonnngg wait! Please review and tune in next time! ^_^ emichii **


	10. The Universal Laws of Friendship

**Digimon does not belong to meeee!! Well, guess what? We're officially at the half-way mark!! That's right! From here on, we're taking a look from the other side of the story, which is Sora's perspective! So, thankyou once again for all the reviews and support, everyone! Please keep reading and reviewing! ^_^ emichii**

Having friends is a great thing. Being a friend to someone else is great too. However, maintaining a friendship can sometimes be hard. Because there are some things we like to call the unofficial but universally recognized laws of friendship…

**Chapter 10: The Universally Recognized Laws of Friendship**

It was Friday morning. Sora hurriedly slung her school bag over her shoulder and quickly walked down the hallway, glancing back to look at the clock on the wall. Suddenly, she patted her pocket to find out she'd left her mobile phone behind. Running lightly back to her room, she smiled to herself seeing that her phone was vibrating and belting out a tune already at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Feigning annoyance, she lifted the phone to her ear. "What is it, Mimi? First thing in the morning?"

Sora chuckled as Mimi let loose with a very long winded description on everything that was happening today and how it was all destined to go wrong. Even though it was impossible to shut Mimi up, she was always so much fun to be with and talk to. She was so dramatic, and today, she was bordering on hysterical.

"_This is stupid! Why do I have to go out with that jerk??" _

"Why didn't you just say no, Mimi?" Sora said reasonably as she made her way down the street, in a cheerful mood.

"_You don't get it! The bastard does whatever he wants! He was just like: 'I'll take you out on Friday', and I'm like, 'Whaaaat--?', and he's like, 'Okay, I'll see you then at 5pm outside the movie cinema.' and then he walks away and I didn't even get a chance to say anything! So I tried to tell him it'd be a cold day in hell before I'd go anywhere with him but he just turns around and gives me this stupid little smirky smile as if he's the hottest thing on the planet, as if he's doing me a bloody favor by taking me out! That's what he's always like, he keeps butting in, interrupting every time I talk to Shin, and he drags me away, and makes unreasonable demands! What is wrong with him?? ARGH! I HATE HIM!!" _

Sora couldn't help laughing as she kept walking. The morning was fresh and cool today, and the street was pretty empty, so she was relaxed.

"_It's not funny!!" _Mimi was protesting from the other end of the line. Now she really did sound upset. _"Shin had just invited me out to do something, but he just had to come and ruin everything!!" _

"From what you've told me so far," Sora said casually, "it sounds like he's jealous."

For once, there was dead silence on the other end of the phone.

"Maybe the great Matt Ishida… _likes_ you?" Sora grinned wickedly into the receiver.

Once again, there was no reply from Mimi.

And then there was such a loud burst of swear words that Sora had to pull the phone abruptly away from her ears.

"Anyway," Sora said good-naturedly once the swearing had died down, "I've got to go. I'll see you soon!"

Sora put the phone away in her pocket and stopped walking, looking up at the apartment complex where the Kamiyas lived. Any moment now, she thought, Tai will have woken up late as usual, and be stumbling out the building, still swallowing his breakfast and trying to put his school blazer on.

"Hey, Sora!!" He yelled out as sure enough, he rushed out of the building, struggling to get his arms into the sleeves of his green blazer.

She was standing outside the apartment building today, out next to the road. Tai started to jog the last distance from the front entrance to her. Suddenly, she felt her mobile beep with a message and she sighed as she dug it out from her pocket, expecting another rant from Mimi. However, it was not Mimi at all.

_Do you think he'll finally talk to me today? Catherine._

Sora looked at the message for moment, before smiling a tiny smile to herself as she texted back.

"Sorry for making you wait!" Tai panted as he arrived beside her. "Were you here long?"

"Nope!" She looked up at her best friend and smiled a big delightful grin.

_Definitely. He'll definitely talk to you. Sora._

In response to her cheerful smile, Tai looked mortally wounded for a moment, standing there with his messy brown hair, his hand loosely holding onto his soccer gearbag strap. Sora saw all that, she could always read the brief hurt that flickered in his deep brown eyes before he struggled to compose himself and smile back.

"Shall we go?" He asked, suddenly cheerful as he took a large stride onto the footpath.

As she followed him slowly, she gazed up at her best friend. He was cheerful again, the dense goofball with his messy brown hair that stuck up in every direction, his long lanky arms and his slightly wrinkled green blazer. He was tall, energetically walking along ahead of her. His steps were much longer than hers, Sora noticed.

There was one rule in the unofficial but universally recognized laws of friendship that everyone knew. It was a rule that girls swore by, even guys would never dare to hurt a mate in such a way.

"Sora, are you coming or not?" Tai joked as he turned around to look at her, dawdling behind him.

Sora looked up at him, at his friendly and caring face. "Yeah!" She said, as she picked up the pace and ran on ahead of Tai, still thinking about the text message she had gotten.

"Hey! Why are you running??" Tai cried.

_You are not allowed to fall for the same person your friend is in love with._

---

"Tai!! You're actually here on time!" Tai's soccer teammate looked amazed.

Tai laughed as he clumsily ran a hand through his messy brown hair. "Yeah," he said. He put down his gearbag onto the bleachers. "Sorry for being late to so many sessions in the past weeks. I promise it won't happen again,"

Tai's friend grinned and whacked him cheerfully on the arm. "It's all right, Captain!"

Tai smiled.

"Oh," piped up another one of the soccer players, who was sitting on the grass, lacing up his boots. "Here come the girls!"

Tai looked up in the direction that he pointed. Surely enough, as it was after school, there was a gaggle of girls giggling and hanging onto each other as they made their way across the field. He watched as Mimi, with her long pink hair flounced ahead of the others, a huge frown on her face, complaining loudly to Sora beside her. Sora looked somewhat amused and was fighting back a smile. Then he noticed the girl trailing behind them.

She had long blonde hair, and was hesitant as she followed after Sora and Mimi, constantly looking back over her shoulder at the soccer field as though looking for someone.

And then it clicked in Tai's brain. The girl was Catherine, Sora's friend.

Suddenly, the blonde girl looked straight at Tai and their eyes met. She froze, she didn't look away or keep scanning the field and then Tai knew, he knew that the person she'd been looking for was him.

Tai watched Catherine's eyes lower and her face turn pink.

"_I think she _likes_ you," _He remembered Sora's singsong voice and her teasing grin.

She stopped walking, just stood there beside the field, now bowing her head and looking down at her hands, which were clutched together in front of her. Her long blonde hair fell delicately over her shoulders.

"_I'm sorry, Tai."_

He watched as Sora paused and looked back at Catherine. She was watching Catherine with a funny expression on her face, it was endearing, yet at the same time, she looked in pain.

"_You're my best friend, Tai. I just can't… I just can't start thinking of you as more than that." _

Tai closed his eyes briefly, tried to find his step again. Sora was still standing nearby, waiting for Catherine, it seemed, who still hadn't moved.

"_Tai, would you… do a favor for me?" _

And Tai started walking towards Catherine.

---

Matt was standing at the cinema, studying the large promotional posters displayed on the wall. He glanced down at his watch; it was just after school, about 4 o'clock. The date with Mimi wasn't until 5, but he wasn't worried at all. He was a pretty much a pro after all, he had it all down. Matt smirked to himslef and watched his good-looking face smile cheekily back at him in the reflection on the shiny wall.

He had it in the bag. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Matt had been on dates with a numerous number of girls, he would now choose and buy the two movie tickets and then hurry back home, fix up his hair a little bit, hmm, actually it looked a little flat; maybe find a different coloured shirt, then saunter back here just in time to meet Mimi.

But Mimi… Matt found himself shiver a little bit. Oh bloody hell, he was meeting _Mimi_. What had he been _thinking?? _

Matt shook himself out of it. It had just been a passing notion in his head, nothing more than that. He wasn't even interested in her, not that he was ever really interested in more than one date with a girl. Seriously, he couldn't even _stand _the girl!

He heard the distant muffled giggles from a group of girls gathered in the corner. They were looking at him and whispering excitedly to each other, perhaps trying to pluck up the nerve to approach him. Matt gave a slight shrug and as he walked past them, he gave them a enigmatic, flirtatious smile. Two of them instantly melted and had to hold onto each other to prevent themselves from choking on their popcorn.

_Hah._ What had he, Yamato Ishida, to be afraid of?

As he moved up in the queue, a girl walking past the clear glass door of the theatre caught his eye. She had a pretty, slightly flushed face and a cute smile. She had glossy black hair and very pale blue nail polish. A boy had his arm slung over her shoulders as they walked briskly past.

Matt froze.

The girl was Joe's girlfriend.

But the boy was not Joe.

---

Sora was watching as her best friend Tai made his way towards Catherine. Catherine's face lit up with surprise and delight. The brown-haired soccer player stopped in front of her and gave her an endearingly shy smile, clumsily running a hand through his hair.

Sora stood still and watched them. Tai did not look even once in her direction.

Tai said something, and Catherine giggled, her face blushing as she held her hands up together in front of her mouth.

"_You're my _best friend_, Tai. I just can't… I just can't start thinking of you as more than that." _

Sora smiled to herself as she turned away from them, her best friend and her friend, leaving them together on the oval.

It was the one rule in the unofficial but universally recognized laws of friendship that everyone knew.

_Hey, Tai… _Her smile didn't fade. She didn't look back as she walked on, by herself. _Do you still remember what I told you that day?_

She could still hear Tai and Catherine's voices behind her, slowly fading out. Sora kept walking.

The very ultimate rule: _You are not allowed to fall for the same person your friend is in love with._

Sora kept her head high, her steps light, nonchalant.

"_I only think of you as a friend, Tai." _

_I was lying._

**Aha!! Well, I've had all that planned for quite a while now. Apart from the little part with Joe's girlfriend, it's a sub-plot that came up just recently. I'd like to focus a bit on Izzy too, but I haven't got any ideas for him. There will be some spotlight on Kari and TK too, I expect. Anyway, sorry for the long wait, I've been away! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Reviews totally make my day, so please review! **


	11. What NOT to do on a Date part 1

**G'day, everyone! I'm sorry for the looonnnggg wait! Y'know, sometimes you can be a bit down on writing energy. Recently, I've been in a writing slump, but an art and photography frenzy. It's kinda funny. Some of you who have been following my work for a while might know that I'm publishing my first book, so I've been a bit weighed down by that too. I've also just realized that all the line breaks I've been using for the past years DON'T WORK. That makes me majorly pissed. RRARGH! Hopefully, I can find something that works. Anyway, sorry and thankyou for all your awesome support and reviews, everybody! They really make my day and encourage me to keep going! Enjoy chapter 11! emichii.**

Matt was standing at the movie cinema, waiting in line, confused as hell. That girl! That was definitely her, Joe's girlfriend! But… _Who was that guy? _

"Next please! …Sir?"

"Oh!" Matt jerked out of his reverie.

**Chapter 11- What NOT to do on a Date (part 1)**

Mimi's voice was high-pitched as she deafened Sora's ear, even through the phone. Sora winced as she tried to hold the phone further away.

"_I can't do this!" _She was screaming. _"This is suicide, Sora, SUICIDE!" _

Sora waited until she was sure it was safe to approach the phone again. "I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just a movie, Mimi, you'll survive."

There was a snort on the other end of the phone. Sora waited.

And then…

"_But I don't know how to do my haaaaaiirrr!" _

* * *

Mimi was rushing down the street, cursing repeatedly under her breath as she struggled past the people. The time was now just after 5, and she didn't mean to be late for… for the _date _with that jerk Ishida, but what did she care? She didn't give a damn about the boy, why didn't she just stand him up? She frowned as she slowed down and waited for the path to clear as she stepped into the cinema's lobby.

How come… how come all this time that she was complaining to Sora about this bloody date… why did she never consider standing him up?

She stood still, just one girl in the crowd as she watched the people bustling past on their own business. They walked in their pairs and their little groups, everyone with someone to talk to, girls with a boyfriend's arm to hang onto.

Mimi's fingers tightened on the strap of her handbag and looked down at the floor. That stupid Matt Ishida. Why… She smiled ironically to herself. _…why do I even bother? _

* * *

Matt was seated casually on one of the seats, waiting for Mimi to turn up. He glanced down at his watch and looked around, she was late. For some reason he was nervous. He scolded himself, what was wrong with him? He _hated _the girl, remember? How did he somehow end up asking her out on a date?

He noticed the blonde girl at the movie counter winking and blowing kisses at him and he absently waved back. _Hah. I'm Yamato Ishida, _he thought, forcing a smile. _There's no way any girl would ever stand me up. Of course she's going to turn up! Besides, _he started to look around, seemingly nonchalant, as though he wasn't waiting for someone, _if worse comes to worse, I'll just ask out some girl hanging around here. They'll agree without hesitation. _

Still, he kept looking around the cinema, and now he was starting to feel unsure, doubting his own confidence.

At ten past, he scowled and got to his feet. The movie was starting in five minutes, and those tickets he'd chosen just for her were burning a hole in his pocket. Scanning the crowd for a pretty girl, he headed towards the giggly brunette standing in the corner.

Less than thirty seconds later, he already had her hanging off his every word, his arm casually slung around her shoulder. And then he happened to glance up and look across the cinema.

She hadn't seen him yet, but it seemed like she had been in a rush. Her face was slightly flushed, and she was heading through the lobby, clumsy in her strappy high-heeled sandals. She was wearing a light blue cotton jacket over a white top, and her gypsy skirt rippled behind her as she came closer. Long curls of pink hair floated gently over her shoulders and down her back.

Matt froze.

Mimi pouted as she looked around the cinema for Matt. She glanced down at her watch, she knew she was late, but in the end she had turned up after all, hadn't she? She looked up and saw the blonde boy across the cinema, his arm slung casually over the shoulder of a giggling brown-haired girl.

"Matt?" The girl whose name he didn't even know was looking up insistently at him. Matt didn't look back at her, instead, pulled away from her and started walking towards Mimi.

Mimi's face was indignant. She was a proud girl; she hadn't even wanted to be here. She turned with a flick of her long pink hair and started to leave.

"Mimi! Hey, wait up!" He didn't even look that apologetic or guilty as he walked quickly after her.

"Don't follow me," she said, not even looking back, her heeled shoes making a clicking noise against the pavement. "You can ask that girl back there."

"Mimi!"

She whipped around and glared at him. "What?"

He pulled the movie tickets out of his pocket. "It starts in two minutes."

"So?"

"Well, what else am I gonna do with them?" Matt pulled a face. "I only chose this movie 'cause I figured it was the kinda thing you'd probably watch!"

"I told you, you can go with that other girl! You're the one who was hanging all over her!"

"It's not my fault! You were late!" Matt cried.

"How is that not your fault? You could've waited a little longer but _noooo, _old Matt Ishida has to go after every girl within a five metre radius from him!" Mimi shot back.

"Well, I thought you weren't going to turn up!" Matt shouted.

"Well, so did I!" Mimi exclaimed.

They glared at each other in silence, each breathing hard after their outbursts. Behind them, a line of customers were already starting to file into the cinema.

"…fine!" Mimi snapped, reaching out and snatching one of the tickets from Matt's hand.

"Fine!" Matt retorted.

And all the other movie-goers could only stop and stare at the odd couple that stomped past them and plonked themselves down next to each other with their arms crossed defiantly.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sora was working at her mother's flower shop, occasionally being shocked by the insistent tone from her phone whenever Mimi texted her frantically. Half of the text messages made no sense at all, ranging from _NOOO! _and _I HATE THIS JERK! _and most recently _This is the worse movie I have ever seen!_ But usually they had more exclamation marks.

Sora couldn't help smiling a little at Mimi's silly messages. At least Mimi was energetic and hysterical as usual.

As for herself… Sora shook her head and scolded herself as she thought back to what had happened this afternoon…

"_Sora!" He was cheerful as usual and Sora couldn't help feeling somehow sad that he wasn't even a little bit wistful over her. _

_She grinned however, kept up the façade as best as she could. Things were difficult between them, but neither of them could bear to bring up what had happened. They had said nothing else about Tai's confession back then since the day after it happened. But how long could they possibly keep it up? _

_He meant to walk her home as usual, but she told him, with the biggest smile she could muster on her face: "I'm sorry! I can't walk with you today; I've got to help out at my Mum's shop." She hoped that her voice was apologetic and not suspicious at all. _

_But… she couldn't help hoping that maybe Tai would pick up on her, care about the fact that she was suddenly ditching him like this. But Tai simply nodded and pasted a smile on his face, the picture of idiocy. _

_She suddenly felt annoyed, and wanted to storm off, knowing that Tai would chase after her, trying to work out what was wrong and apologize like he'd always done. Instead, she motioned to the blonde-haired girl standing a couple of metres away and said sweetly, "Why don't you walk Catherine home today?"_

Sora looked up at the clock on the wall and wondered to herself. _I wonder… if they had fun on their walk home today? _Just like she and Tai had always had fun together. She wondered if they had stopped at the video game arcade and if Tai had bought her ice cream.

And she knew it was silly of her. _Tai, _she thought, _I might end up missing you a bit once you and Catherine get together. I guess we won't be walking to and from school together much anymore. _

And even though she'd only seen him just a while ago, and he was not dating Catherine yet, and even though they were still best friends, but she had already started missing him once she saw his back walking away.

* * *

When Matt came back from his date with Mimi at about quarter to 8pm, he found his friend Tai crouched down patiently outside his apartment door.

"Tai?"

Tai looked up and grinned goofily. "Hey, Matt!"

"What's up?" Matt frowned. "Can I help you?"

Tai stood up and waved the game he was holding in front of Matt's face. "Can I borrow your Xbox?"

"What are you talking about?" Matt opened the door to his apartment. "What's wrong with your own one?"

Tai pulled a face and shrugged. "Your little brother TK has invaded the Kamiya apartment to play Xbox with Kari. They've been at it for the last hour or so and I want my daily dose of gaming too!"

Matt rolled his eyes as Tai bounded into his apartment and barged into Matt's room, seating himself down in front of the TV screen. "Besides," Tai said wickedly, as he turned around to smirk at Matt, "I want to hear all about how it went with Mimi!"

Almost immediately Matt's face went red, and he snapped. "Well, I don't want to tell you!"

"Aww… why not?" Tai whinged.

Matt stomped into his bedroom and threw himself back-down onto his bed, the scowl furious on his face. "Girls are ridiculous and otherworldly creatures." He declared.

"Tell me something I don't know," Tai muttered under his breath, as he fiddled with the controller. "You never even told me why you were so dead set on taking Mimi out. Correct me if I'm wrong, man, but I remember you telling me that you couldn't stand her."

Matt grumbled, his face the very picture of frustration as he slowly pulled himself up. "Who knows? I don't even know what I was thinking, taking _her _out, for crying out loud!"

Tai said nothing and Matt sighed.

"Well…" Matt spoke up. "What happening with Sora now?"

Tai said nothing and kept staring straight ahead at the TV screen, shooting at enemies with suddenly increased force.

"Nothing." Tai said simply. And then he paused the game and turned around to smile at Matt.

"…Tai?" Matt raised an eyebrow. Tai kept grinning, goofy and carefree as always.

"Actually, there was another reason I came here." Tai said slowly, placing the controller carefully down on the floor in front of his crossed legs.

Matt was curious about his silly friend's suddenly serious behaviour. "What?"

"You know, Matt, you're the expert at all this. But I actually want helpful advice this time, no more bloody lists on failsafe ways to get the girl, okay?"

"Okay, okay!"

Matt waited. Tai tilted his head to the side and scratched the back of his head nonchalantly as he said softly:

"I'm going to ask Catherine out."

**Aaannnnndddd…. Thanks for reading! Not much Sora in this chapter, but next chapter will be pretty heavy, so be prepared! I wanted to do a bit of a bromance thing, haha! What did you think of the Mimi/Matt this chapter? And I know you want to know what happened for the rest of the date, and you will find out next chapter! In Mimi's own hysterical words! ^_^ Sorry again for the long wait! Please review! **


	12. What NOT to do on a Date part 2

**Digimon does not belong to meeee! Thanks for reading and for all the reviews as usual, everybody! ^_^ Man, I'm so exhausted; I can't wait till I graduate and give up maths completely. Ugh! I've also been a bit hassled with things over my first book, so thankyou for putting up with my slow and lethargic updates recently! Hope you'll all continue to support my writing in and out of fanfiction! Enjoy chapter 12!**

Tai tilted his head to the side as he scratched the back of his head nonchalantly. His voice was soft, cheerful as usual.

"I'm going to ask Catherine out."

Matt didn't know what to say. Tai was silent, not touching the Xbox controller sitting in front of him.

Matt slowly pulled himself up and stared at Tai, who was still smiling, but not looking at him.

"…why?" Matt asked slowly, trying to be sensitive of Tai's feelings. "But I thought you…"

Tai let out a small chuckle. "I thought so too. But Sora and I…" He leant back on his hands and stared up at the ceiling, his smile vanishing for a moment, "…can only ever be best friends."

**Chapter 12: What NOT to do on a Date (part 2)**

On Saturday morning, Sora rolled out of bed to answer the insistent doorbell.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" She mumbled, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she padded down the hallway.

Opening the door, she was suddenly crash-tackle-glomped by a pink-haired girl.

"Soraaaa!" Mimi sang. She was already dressed and prettied-up for a day out with her best girlfriend.

Sora winced; it was too early in the morning for such energy. "Why so early, Mimi?" She whined as she slumped back down the corridor, Mimi hanging off her shoulder with unmet enthusiasm.

"It's not that early!" Mimi pouted, "It's already past ten!"

Sora yawned and glanced at the clock on the wall, confirming what Mimi had said. She wandered back into her bedroom, Mimi bouncing right behind her.

"Besides, I have a lot to fill you in on about yesterday," she declared with a delicate frown creasing her pretty face.

Somewhere at the top of her mind, Sora looked at Mimi and how pretty she was, suddenly feeling a little bit jealous. Of course, she had just woken up with her bed hair and sloppy sweats and pajama pants, but still… pausing for a moment to look at herself in the mirror, she wondered if Tai had ever really seen her as more than a tomboy.

"_I like you… way more than a best friend should…" _

And Sora knew she shouldn't, but sometimes… if she closed her eyes for a moment, if she replayed those words to herself, they made her feel happy. And just for a moment, she might let herself believe that it was true.

* * *

Joe listened to the continual ringing of the phone through the earpiece. Nobody was picking up. He sighed and kept waiting, drumming his fingers on his desk, gazing down at the textbooks and notebooks piled up in front of him.

Finally, he heard her pick up.

"Hello?" Her voice was sleepy, but adorable and Joe smiled to himself.

"Good morning, it's Joe."

"…oh!" Her voice took on a surprised tone, almost guilty. "Um…"

"…do you want to go out today? I mean, you've finished that Japanese assignment you needed help with, right?"

"Oh, actually…" He could hear the apologetic tone in her voice. "Sorry, Joe, I can't. Not today, I…"

"You mean you haven't finished it yet? Do you want my help?"

"Oh no, that's not what I meant! It's done, really! I've just… got something else I need to do today, I'm sorry, Joe."

Joe forced a little laugh. "Okay. I'll talk you to you later then."

"Okay. I'm sorry. See you,"

Joe heard the slight pause before she hung up. Joe sighed and pressed the end button. He looked down at the phone and couldn't help feeling somewhat wistful.

What he didn't know though, was that on the other end of the line, his girlfriend was doing the exact same thing. Joe's girlfriend put down the receiver softly and glanced across the room at the unfinished assignment still lying on her desk.

* * *

"So, what exactly happened yesterday?" Sora asked as she sat down on the floor, making herself comfortable with a cushion. "All I got were fifty-one texts that didn't make any sense."

Mimi played with a lock of her pink hair as she leant back against the wall, and rolled her eyes. "I don't know what I was thinking. Going on a date with that jerk…"

_REWIND TO FRIDAY EVENING'S ULTRA-DRAMATICALLY FRUSTRATING EVENTS: (With awesome bonus commentary by the one and only Mimi Tachikawa!)_

Mimi and Matt were sitting next to each other in the cinema, their arms crossed defiantly as they glared up at the giant screen. The chairs were red and cushiony, and the arm-rests were huge.

The rest of the movie-goers had finished streaming in and were selecting their spots in the cinema, making themselves comfortable. A couple sitting right in front of them were already snuggled together, their fingers intertwined over the huge armrest between them. The sight of the mushy couple made both Matt and Mimi scowl and grow more irritated.

There was absolutely nothing to talk about or do and the awkwardness grew as they sat in the darkness, waiting for the lights to dim and the movie to start. The previews were starting now, a trailer about some teeny-bopper movie.

Mimi kept her arms crossed, "You should've bought popcorn."

"Well, I couldn't, could I?" Matt snapped, "Because you came late!"

Mimi was rearing to fight back, but just then someone from the back of the cinema shouted out, "Shut up, will you? The movie's starting!"

They shot each other murderous looks and glared upwards at the screen.

"_And oh-my-gosh, that movie, it was absolutely horrible!" Mimi shook her head with a flounce of her hair. "What bad taste, honestly!" _

About ten minutes into the movie, Mimi hissed to her enemy, "What is this crap?"

"Don't complain to me about it. It's just the kind of movie for a bigheaded ditzy girl like you!" He retorted.

"Excuse me?" Mimi's voice went high. "Did you just call me bigheaded?"

Matt snorted. "You also happen to be deaf, huh?"

Mimi rose up to her feet and screeched: "You take that back, right now! JERK!"

"Whoa, what are you doing, Tachikawa?" He looked mortified. "Sit down, will you! Gee, everyone's staring!"

"_The dope," Mimi rolled her eyes. "Always caring so much about what others thought of him. Embarrassed, huh?" _

"_Haha…" Sora gave a sympathetic chuckle. "But don't _you_ also worry about what people think?" _

"Who do you think is bigheaded, huh?" She cried. "Look at you, and your styled hair, your carefully rehearsed pick-up lines!"

"You-!" Matt forgot himself for a moment and also stood up, yelling, "_Rehearsed pick-up lines?_ Why you-"

"_And it wasn't even my fault," Mimi sighed tragically, "But-"_

An empty drink carton came flying down towards them from somewhere up the back. "For crying out loud, you two, will you either shut up and sit down or take it outside?"

"YEAH!" came a chorus of agreement from the rest of the movie-watchers.

Matt growled and sat down with as much pride as he could muster.

Mimi did the same, flicking her long pink hair over her shoulder as she did so.

"_And really, the movie was utter crap!" Mimi said seriously, "Who the hell comes up with stuff like that? I can't believe he thought it was the kind of thing I would enjoy! He knows absolutely nothing about me! Who would want to see a movie about some teenaged girl who happens to be a secret pop star with a rhyming name who happens to run into some bloke who happens to be a vampire who…"_

"…you thought I would enjoy this movie?" Mimi muttered half an hour later.

Matt sniffed and ignored her.

"_I was really offended he would even think of choosing such a crappy movie as my taste! What does he know? He-"_

"I didn't even want to watch this," Matt grumbled. "I only bothered to pick it because I thought you'd like it."

"Well, you obviously thought wrong, didn't you?"

"How was I supposed to know?" Matt's voice rose.

"How were you supposed to know?" Mimi screeched, "You know what you could've done, Matt Ishida, YOU COULD'VE ASKED!"

"WELL, I-" Matt didn't know what to say.

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Mimi cried, "You think I'm just another one of them, another one of those girls, but I'm not! I'm not going to happily sit next to you and watch whatever crap gets played just because I get to go on a date with the _oh-so-great _Ishida! You just had to _ask_, Matt, ask what I wanted to see!"

"_And then," Mimi went on energetically, her frown digging deeper over her eyes, "the couple in front of us, they-"_

The couple in front of them turned around, the girl with an annoyed look on her face and the boy with a casual smirk. "Just 'cause you quarrelling lovers can't sort things out doesn't mean you have to subject the rest of the cinema to your bickering."

"WHAAAATTTT?" Matt and Mimi screamed in unison as they both jumped to their feet.

"Lovers?" Matt was incredulous. "You've gotta be kidding me, man? With this chick?"

"Lovers? No way!" Mimi was hysterical. "I never EVER want to be lovers with him!"

"_And then," Mimi leaned towards Sora, her voice dropping dramatically, "And then…"_

"_And then what?" Sora sounded slightly annoyed, she hated being kept hanging._

"_And then we got kicked out of the cinema." Mimi finished off with a weary sigh. "And I stomped off to go home and left him behind." _

_Sora didn't say anything, just watched Mimi as she sighed and gave her a little smile. "Actually, what I really wanted to watch was that comedy about the boy who falls in love with his best friend." _

Matt watched her walk away and he cursed under his breath, berated himself for being stupid enough to take her out at all. He thought back to what Mimi had screamed at him before they were kicked out.

"…ask her, huh?" He murmured to himself as he put his hands into his pockets and turned to the exit, glancing up at the movie poster about a boy who fell in love with his best friend.

_END REWIND!_

* * *

It was afternoon when Sora received a text on her phone. She blinked at it for a moment, then got to her feet and started to head down the corridor.

_I have something to tell you. I'm at the park._

Shrugging, she put the phone in her pocket, slipped on some shoes and headed out. The weather was cool, a little windy, but not too cold. She considered bringing a jacket just in case but then decided against it. It would be all right.

She got to the park, looked around and spotted Catherine sitting on one of the swings.

"Catherine!" she called out as she headed over to her.

The quiet blonde girl lifted her head to look at Sora and smiled. "Sora."

"What's up?" Sora asked cheerfully as she took a seat on the swing beside her.

"Um…" Catherine's smile dropped as she looked down at the ground beneath her feet, pushing herself on the swing a little. "Actually…" Her voice dropped softer and Sora had to strain to hear her.

Sora tilted her head and grew worried. "What is it? Are you okay?"

Catherine couldn't look at Sora as her voice broke and she started sniffling.

"Catherine?" She was worried now, and reached out to grab her shoulder. "What happened? Are you all right?"

"…I'm all right," Catherine finally said as she raised her head and smiled at Sora. "I'm better than all right!" Her eyes were teary and her face was flushed.

Sora stared at Catherine.

"Um… Tai… he…" Catherine blushed and smiled harder, "…asked me to be his girlfriend."

Sora froze.

"When he asked me, I just had to come and tell you, Sora!" She giggled, her eyes shiny from happy tears. "It's all thanks to you. If it wasn't for you, it wouldn't have happened, he never would've even looked at me!

Catherine got up from the swing and pulled Sora up from hers, smiling all the while.

"That's why I had to come," She explained, clasping Sora's hands in hers. "Thankyou so much, Sora! You're such a great friend!"

And Catherine hugged her, and all Sora could do was numbly stand there.

"Anyway," Catherine pulled away, her blonde hair bouncing over her shoulder, "I have to go now! I'll see you later, okay?"

Sora watched her go. Catherine with her long blonde hair and the visible bounce in her step, and the smile in her voice.

_So Tai… finally asked her, huh? _Sora smiled to herself.

And suddenly, inside, and all over, Sora felt cold. Really cold, and she shivered, even though there was no breeze. So cold… like her heart was growing numb.

She knew she should've brought that jacket.

**I couldn't help it. I had to put that jacket part in! Haha, forgive me, I could've ended it a little nicer. But there you go… chapter 12! Hope you liked it! Please review! By the way, Joe and his girlfriend's sub-plot is starting, and the girlfriend doesn't even have a name! So any suggestions? I'm happy to hear them! ^_^ Thanks for your patronage! Haha! emichii. **


	13. Indecision, even over Ice Cream

**Hi everyone! ****As always, thanks for all the support and reviews, everyone! They keep me going! ^_^ And yep, so the plot gets more tangled as it goes on… hope you'll keep reading! Read and review! emichii.**

"_It's all thanks to you. If it wasn't for you, it wouldn't have happened, he ne__ver would've even looked at me!"_

Catherine was hugging Sora, and her voice was so happy. Sora smiled back, and held her.

"_That's why I had to come. Thankyou so much, Sora! You're such a great friend!" _

_Yeah, _thought Sora to herself as she smiled weakly to herself. _…such a… great friend. _

**Chapter 13: Indecision is a Decision, even over Ice Cream**

It was late Sunday morning when Joe saw her. Yesterday he had invited her out, but she had been busy. He didn't expect it, he wasn't even entirely sure it was her. He stopped where he was, in front of the bookstore and peered through the crowd.

He'd just gone out to buy himself a new notebook, and wanted to pick up the morning newspaper while he was at it. But passing by the newsstand, he caught a glimpse of her glossy black hair falling down her petite shoulders.

_But, Joe, _he reasoned with himself, _you live in Japan! This is Odaiba; of course lots of girls have glossy black hair down to their shoulders._

But the way she walked as she passed through the crowd. Joe adjusted his glasses and followed her discreetly through the crowd, pausing when she did, standing at the bookstore, absentmindedly picking up the manga on display and flicking through it as he peered over the top of the pages.

His heart beat faster. He recognized her dress. And then… and then as she turned, he swore that was pale-blue nail polish on her fingers.

"Hito-" he started to call out to her, still holding the manga in his hands, and then she turned and giggled and he knew it at once, it was definitely her, he could memorize the notes and key of her laugh, but she was giggling and she was turning to someone and that someone was not him!

He stood still, frozen on the spot, not even daring to breathe, not even able to move and hide from her sight.

Who _was _that? His stomach dropped, felt hollow and empty. Why was she with him? And she was smiling as she walked on with that boy, her back to him as she left.

"Ehh? Joe, you read HENTAI?"

Joe almost fell over. "What? Ah! NO! No, I don't!" He cried, flustered, his face burning, confused as he felt someone take the offending book from his hands.

"Chill, it's all right! I was just joking!" Tai grinned his carefree smile from beside him. He jovially waved the book at Joe's face. "Besides, I know it was a _shojo _manga you were so engrossed in!"

"_Shojo? _No, I wasn't really reading it, I was just-" He stammered.

Tai smiled and clapped a hand on Joe's back. As his goofy smile faded, his voice grew more serious. "Seriously though, you were standing there white as a ghost. You didn't even hear me calling out for you, what happened?"

Joe looked out in front of him at the crowd, of course she was gone.

"…it was nothing," he turned to his cheerful friend and tried a smile. "Anyway, what brings you out this morning?"

As Tai talked cheerfully to his friend, he replaced the manga onto the display table as they moved on down the sidewalk, and he was reminded of a somewhat similar scenario taking place here before.

"_I see you were enjoying yourself reading that!" _

"_What? No! I wasn't reading it!" _

Tai walked on without looking back, and smiled ruefully as he remembered her words.

"_You sure?" Sora smirked, "Hmm… Shojo manga, eh?"_

Tai's grin deepened even though it hurt a little to remember.

* * *

Matt had a headache.

He couldn't work it out. In all fourteen years of his life, he had been the one who knew the most about the female species. After all, wasn't he the one who wrote the list of fail-safe ways to get the girl? But… Matt groaned and ran a hand haphazardly through his blonde hair and glared at the bathroom mirror in front of him.

What had _happened _to him?

"_That's the thing, isn't it? You think I'm just another one of them, another one of those girls, but I'm not! I'm not going to happily sit next to you and watch whatever crap gets played just because I get to go on a date with the oh-so-great Ishida! You just had to ask, Matt, ask what I wanted to see!"_

Matt looked at himself in the mirror, icy blue eyes staring straight back at himself.

His thoughts kept going back to that haughty pink-haired girl who sat up the front of his maths class, the one with the annoying giggle, the ditzy one, who texted at lightning speed with her mobile phone, proud and high-handed, the way she flicked her long wavy pink hair over her shoulder and pouted when she was annoyed, as if she was the prettiest girl alive and boys would fall all over her feet to please her.

Speaking of boys… Matt's brow tightened and he found himself scowling at the thought of that bastard Shin and how he flirted with her all the time, the way she giggled at his comments and how angry she was when he interrupted them, and the way, oh, the way she yelled at him that time.

"_It's none of your business! You ruin _everything_!"_

And her annoyingly wavy pink hair and her annoying mobile phone and her annoying laugh and her annoyingly sweet voice and her annoying heeled sandals and her annoyingly innocent face when she came into the cinema and her annoyingly pretty face and her…

Suddenly, Matt was shocked to feel his heart beat loudly against his chest, a loud, echoing thud.

He saw her angry face, her hurt voice, the usual way she snapped and argued at him, thought back of the way she turned from him, her long pink hair flicking behind her. And how she screamed at him before all he saw was her back, retreating from him.

"_I HATE YOU, YAMATO ISHIDA!"_

Matt's chest felt odd. He tightened one hand into a fist and swallowed, finally turning away from the mirror.

…_I hate you too, Mimi Tachikawa. _

* * *

Sora could hear the sound of her phone beeping with a message on her desk. Frowning, she got up from where she had been lying around on her bed and put down the book she had been not quite reading, but staring at blankly.

_Sora, can you come out for a moment? XD_

Sora couldn't help it; she smiled a little and then peeked out the window of her room. Down at the bottom of the apartment complex she could see the boy walking around in circles, his brown poofy hair sticking up in all directions.

_What for? What's up? _

She texted back, but actually, she already knew why. She watched him from the window, to see his reaction. Tai… the goofy, clueless guy… he'd probably be embarrassed about it. Any moment now, she thought, he'd probably flush and then scratch his head with confusion before rushing to text a message, possibly making a spelling error, then going back to fix it up.

The boy standing outside pulled out his mobile to look at the newly received message. Reading it, Tai frowned for a moment, as if not sure how to reply. He absentmindedly ran a hand through his brown hair, confused, and then hurriedly tried to text back a reply that would sound normal enough.

Tai's fingers paused on the buttons, suddenly struggling to find the right words.

_Let's talk. :) I'll buy you ice cream! _

Sora felt a little wistful at the smiley face. That's what he was gonna do, huh? Just spend another afternoon out as best friends before casually announcing that by the way, I've got a girlfriend now!

She paused a moment before answering.

_You're a dork, Tai. Look up, stupid!_

Wonder how long she could get away with playfully insulting and calling him names?

As usual, he reacted with a little jolt at the slight insult, even though it was just a text message. She could see his shoulders rise up at the message, and then turn around and look up at her bedroom window, as if to yell at her.

Instead, of course, he grinned that adorable silly grin. Tai's grin that she could see from three stories up.

She opened the window with a slight creak, just in time to see him cup his mouth with his hands and yell out, not caring who heard him:

"SORAA! GET DOWN HERE!"

"Sheesh, Tai, be quiet!" She scolded. "There are other people in this apartment complex, you know?"

_Besides, _she tightened her grip on her mobile phone as she slipped it into her pocket. _I'm not sure I really want to hear what you've got to tell me. _

He looked up at her expectantly, goofy grin still on his face. She could almost see the light bulb turning on in his head, the devilish spark in his eyes.

"Soraaaaaa!" He shouted again. "If you don't come down here in exactly ten seconds, I'll tell your mum who it really was that burnt the hole in the carpet in the fifth grade!"

Sora started and yelled out: "TAI!"

His laughter could be heard even three stories up.

* * *

Whenever they ate ice cream together, they always had the same flavours. Always. And always from the same ice cream vendor down the street, across the road from the same convenience store, and they always sat at that same bench.

Sora's favourite was always choc-chip. Tai always had chocolate. It was so obvious, nobody ever had to ask. They just went and whoever was treating would come back, one choc-chip and one chocolate.

She sat there on the bench, waiting, watching Tai's back in front of her as he headed towards the ice cream stall.

"…wait! Hey, Tai!"

He turned and smiled at her. "Yeah? What's up?"

"…actually…" She didn't even know if she was the one talking, where the words were coming from. "…can I just have vanilla today?"

He stared at her for a moment.

She suddenly felt a need to explain. "I just… don't feel like choc-chip today."

He blinked and then smiled. "Okay," And off he was again, jogging over towards the ice cream stand.

Sora sighed quietly to herself and then looked up, watching his back heading away from her as he talked cheerfully to the girl behind the ice cream counter. He ran his hand absentmindedly through his messy brown hair as he talked and he laughed freely.

That was the thing, Sora suddenly realized as her eyes widened.

Tai didn't notice how the girl behind the counter smiled extra brightly when he talked to her, how she blushed pink when he good-naturedly thanked her, how he was always so comfortable and friendly to everyone, and he had no idea of the effect he could have on others, just by being himself.

Tai… was her best friend.

How he laughed, how he joked, how he acted stupid and idiotic. The bad puns he told, the way he was always late, how he kept sleeping in, the funny look on his face when he was concentrating, the absent-minded way he scratched the back of his head, his messy brown hair, the look of happiness on his face when he was on the soccerfield, Tai, he…

And he was coming back towards her, an ice cream in each hand. And suddenly, Sora felt something in her chest ache painfully.

"...ah." Her eyes were wide, as he held out an ice–cream to her. She frowned. "You…"

He wasn't holding his own usual chocolate ice cream in his hand.

He grinned and shrugged at her. "I guess… I don't feel like chocolate today?"

And that strange ache in her chest hurt again.

Because that was the way Tai was. He didn't have to say anything; he always knew what to do to make her feel better. She knew he did it as a way to assure her that everything was all right, and always, even for a little moment, everything was.

Sora knew then. Taichi Kamiya, her best friend… wasn't just the goofy boy she'd always known. He sat there, cheerful, oblivious to what she was thinking and ate his ice cream beside her. Sora looked down at the ice cream in her hands and wondered if this was the last time they'd eat ice cream together like this. If she had known, she would've asked for choc-chip like always.

Suddenly, there was Tai, a pout on his face as he complained good-naturedly: "I wish I had chosen chocolate."

And Sora smiled, seeing the colour of Tai's hair and the brown in his eyes. _Me too, _she thought, _me too. _

**Umm… sorry for the long wait, everyone! And I'm sorry for the odd way that chapter ended, I wasn't really thinking. I guess I just wanted to get to some finality with Tai and Sora's friendship, so I put a lot of focus in that this chapter; I was trying to show the nature and closeness of their relationship. Apart from that, this chapter felt kinda filler… sorry! However, Joe has now discovered that his girlfriend may be seeing someone behind his back, Matt seems to be troubled, and nobody knows what Tai is thinking, not even me! Haha, no, I joke. What that means is that things are really going to start moving next chapter! ^_^ Please review! **


	14. Losing Chances is just like Losing Lives

**Ummm… it's been like three months since the last update. **

**I'm really, really sorry. Really sorry. I know I can't really give any excuses, since it has been THREE MONTHS. Um… but I was writing my NanoWrimo all of last month, so all my fanfic was paused. **

…**yeah, you can probably tell I was a bit stuck. Here's chapter 14! Hope it'll be okay! Reviews are greatly appreciated, they help me out when I'm having trouble writing.**

Tai had never had a girlfriend before in his life. And now, as he stood in front of his bedroom mirror, fiddling with his school tie, he wondered once again, just what he had gotten himself into.

**Chapter 14: Losing Chances is just like Losing Lives**

"_It's really not that hard," _Tai recalled Matt's words of advice. _"Be nice and considerate, give them a hug every now and then, hold their hand, take them out, pay for their meals…"_

"_Correct me if I'm wrong, Matt," Tai looked skeptically at his friend. "But since when were _you _nice and considerate?" _

_Matt looked offended. "What? Well, I've never had any shortage of girlfriends now, have I?"_

"_That's 'cause you keep cheating on them," Tai snickered._

_And then he felt a pillow come crashing into his head. _

"TAAAAIIII!" There was the sound of footsteps thudding up to his bedroom door. The door came crashing open into the wall with a loud bang, his little sister bursting into the room, voice on maximum. "WAKE UP, TAI!"

Tai looked at his sister curiously.

She stared back at him just as curiously.

"…what?" Kari stared wide-eyed at her older brother, standing in front of his mirror; calmly doing up his school tie, making sure his uniform was all neat and tidy.

She was at a loss for words at first. "…since when were you awake on time?"

Tai blinked and then turned to give his sister a clumsy smile. "…since now, I guess?"

* * *

_SLAP! _

Matt felt the slap sting his cheek.

The corridor was empty and silent. He was stunned, staring off to the side, his right cheek throbbing.

The girl stared angrily at him, but her eyes were watery.

"You liar! I saw you out with another girl on Friday night!"

Slowly, he turned his head back to look down coolly at her. The stupidest thing was that he knew she still liked him, no matter how many times she might slap him or shout at him. It was so bloody obvious it was sad.

It was always like this, huh.

She probably expected him to throw an arm around her shoulder to comfort and calm her down, for him to kiss her reassuringly, and looking at her face, that was what she wanted most of all.

Matt smirked to himself and then looked away from her. She was devastated.

_Did you really think I was going to beg and ask for forgiveness? That's what you wanted, right? Slapping me and looking at me all teary-eyed? …you girls are all the same. _

"Matt!" She was shouting now, tugging at his sleeve as he ignored her and started to move off down the hallway. "Matt, wait, don't go!"

And now she was the one pleading with him. God, how pathetic.

She was really sobbing now. "Matt… you're heartless…!"

And yet she was still so in love with him she was begging him not to go.

It was always so easy. Seriously. All he had to do now was pull her towards him, whisper a soft meaningful apology, kiss her and she'd been all devoted and hung over him again.

But this time… Matt brushed her hands away from him. He was over it.

He left her behind to cry by herself in the corridor. He didn't care, he told himself, he really didn't. It was just another girl, there were plenty where that came from.

"_He… he doesn't re__ally like you! He'll just date you and then throw you away, and go onto the next girl!" _

"…_Is that yourself you're describing?"_

Suddenly, it was like _her _face just flashed in his mind. Mimi Tachikawa and her long pink hair and her haughty expression and her airheaded ways.

"_How were you supposed to know?" _And her face had been disbelieving, her voice loud and strained. _"You know what you could've done, Matt Ishida, YOU COULD'VE ASKED!"_

He felt his pulse quicken suddenly, his breath stuck in his throat.

"_Correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, but since when were _you _nice and considerate?" _Tai's surprisingly no-nonsense words.

Coming down the staircase, he headed outside into the school yards. Matt scowled, now in a bad mood, didn't even want to stop and flirt with the bunch of girls gathered in the corner.

Suddenly, looking up ahead, he glimpsed someone's pink wavy hair and heard their laugh.

They were standing next to the school gate, a boy and a girl. He didn't know what they were talking about, he was too far away to hear them, but her laughter was so loud and happy- ringing clear in his ears.

No girl had ever laughed like that for him.

The weirdest thing was that it made him angry. Matt wanted to go up to that bastard Shin and punch him in the jaw, he wanted to pull that annoying Mimi away, tell her off for being an idiot and having a stupid laugh.

But…

"_You're such a jerk…"_He hated how she had pulled away from him, her pink hair falling over her face and her shoulders, how her voice faltered down to a whimper, as if she was trying not to cry.

Shin seemed to have noticed him coming towards them, because he raised his head and looked directly at him. His expression wasn't challenging him or mocking him or anything. He was just glancing over at him cautiously.

"Shin?" Mimi glanced up. "What are you looking at?" She turned to follow his gaze.

Matt felt like there was something stuck in his throat, didn't know why, it was like he didn't want anyone to see him, didn't want to meet her gaze at all.

Shin placed a hand gently on the side of her head and turned her to face away from Matt. He smiled. "It's nothing,"

She smiled in reply and laughed, but all Matt could see were the curls of her pink hair falling down her back.

It was as if Matt's heart stung almost as much as his face did.

* * *

He found her in the library, sitting alone at one of the desks; head bowed over what looked like last minute homework.

Heading towards her, Joe began to feel uncomfortable. She was so pretty, seated there, glossy straight black hair, pale blue nail polish, looking cute in her reading glasses. She was so… unlike him.

"…Hitomi."

She started suddenly and almost immediately began to close up her textbooks in a hurry. "H-hi, Joe!"

He looked down at her, she didn't look at him, instead busying herself with taking off her reading glasses, and putting them away.

There was a silence for a moment; Joe had so many unanswered questions running through his head, why… how come suddenly it was like they were so many miles apart?

"Is…" He reached out to touch her notebook lying haphazardly on the desk. "Is this the Japanese assignment you said you finished?"

She reached out and grabbed it suddenly, hugging it protectively to her chest, face red. "N-no! I told you I already finished it, didn't I?"

Joe's hand was still outstretched towards the now empty desk. Hitomi looked uncomfortable. "S-sorry…"

Joe could see the writing on the papers she was clutching. It was the Japanese assignment.

She didn't look at him, instead curling away from him, as if scared or not wanting to be near him. Joe swallowed and then tried to smile, tried to sound calm and normal. "…I told you… if you needed help on anything, I would help you."

She didn't answer, her gaze lowered.

He suddenly was reminded of Matt's skeptical words. _"Besides, I bet she's not even that hot. She's probably all freckly, kinda chunky and has braces and wears glasses and is a nerd." _

"_I bet what they classify as a 'date' is getting together at the library to study their textbooks together." _Izzy and Tai had been joking but…

"_She's… she's… hot!" _Matt had uttered out exactly what Joe had been trying to understand for the last three months.

The thing was, Joe had never been offended when Matt had reacted in such a way. Because honestly, he himself could not work out how it had happened. Really, what were the chances of a girl like her liking someone like him? Those last three months… maybe he had just been dreaming the whole time?

Because Joe knew, just as well as everyone else, there was no way a beautiful, popular girl like her would ever be with the quiet, nerdy boy. They had always been like that, separate ends of the spectrum, like polar opposites on different ends of the world.

She still was avoiding his gaze, delicate fingers curled around the books hugged to her chest.

Joe felt his chest ache. "Yesterday…"

She seemed to visibly flinch at his voice.

He breathed in and out slowly, closed his eyes almost as if in pain, like trying to calm himself down. "Yesterday," he said, "I saw you out at the shops."

Her eyes widened.

"…I called out to you, but you didn't seem to hear me."

Now she finally seemed to respond and turned her head to stare at him. But Joe looked away and chuckled lightly. "Guess you were too preoccupied with the guy you were with."

"Joe…" she started to say. "I'm sorry, that guy was-"

"Then that other time too…" He said, thinking back to how she had turned down his invitation to go out on Friday afternoon.

Hitomi looked stricken. "Joe, that time I-"

Joe just smiled, as nicely and kindly as he could. "It's okay. I understand. …you could've told me earlier, you know. I wouldn't have held anything against you."

Because all along, he had known that he must've been dreaming.

* * *

"Hey guys," Tai headed towards his friends, seated together at the table.

They barely lifted their heads to acknowledge him, Matt seemed pissed off, Joe silent and sullen, Izzy looking agitated as he hid his face behind the screen of his laptop. Davis had his face down on the table, and TK was furiously texting away on his phone, presumably with capital letters.

"…what's up?" Tai wondered.

From behind him, a blonde haired girl peeked out at his friends.

Davis rolled his head over to stare at them.

"Um…" Tai started nervously, "This is Catherine. We just started going out."

"H-hi," she nodded shyly and then tugged at Tai's sleeve. He took her hand and squeezed it as if to reassure her.

Matt looked like he was going to murder Tai. The other boys at the table seemed to perk up enough to glare daggers at the poor boy.

There was just something incredibly irritating about seeing him so neatly dressed, with his well-done tie, and ironed blazer, sweetly holding hands with his girlfriend. It was even harder to stomach for the single and depressed.

"…she dumped me!" Davis moaned. "Again!"

"What?" TK muttered drily. "As if that hasn't happened before. What does this make it, the fifty-second time?"

"It's the thirty-fifth!" Davis snapped. "And like you're one to talk? Who are you texting at so furiously, huh?"

TK's face went red. "It's none of your business!"

"You and Kari in a fight?"

"Do _you_ want a fight?"

Joe hadn't said a word. It didn't look like anyone wanted to ask what had happened, perhaps they had already presumed it, and Tai wasn't about to bring it up.

Tai smiled weakly to himself.

How ironic it was that now he was the only one with a girlfriend.

* * *

"…do you think I should go out with Shin?"

Sora looked over at Mimi, standing at her locker. "…you like him, don't you? Why not?"

Mimi sighed and swung the locker door closed before hooking the lock on and clicking it shut. "I don't even know anymore."

Sora closed her own locker door. "How come?"

Mimi frowned. "…everything's just… weird now."

Sora smiled to herself. "Tell me about it."

The pink-haired girl glanced at Sora. "…so Tai's going out with Catherine now?"

"Seems so."

Mimi frowned and sighed softly. "Strange, because I seem to recall him liking someone else before."

"…really?"

They made their way to class through the crowded corridors, dodging the crowd and other students. From up ahead, Sora could catch a glimpse of someone's poofy brown hair and hear their cheerful voice.

Tai was walking down the other side of the corridor, heading in the opposite direction. Clinging to his arm was Catherine. They didn't seem to notice anyone else in the crowded hallway, gliding through without trouble, Tai shielding Catherine from the crush of the crowd.

"…Sora?" Mimi asked. "What's wrong?"

She had stopped in the middle of the hallway, in the middle of the people pushing past, her head turned to look behind her.

Even though all she could see was his back, Sora thought to himself that Tai seemed… happy.

"Sora?"

She turned back and ran a few steps ahead to catch up. "Sorry about that,"

"Is something wrong?" Mimi looked at her curiously.

Sora smiled her hardest. "No. Nothing's wrong."

Maybe… this was how it was supposed to be. She and Tai… always seemed to be going in different directions.

But… even now, even though he was _gone_, even though he had walked in the other direction, even though he had turned up to school on time for once with his well-presented uniform and his girlfriend, even so…

Even though the corridor was crowded and full of bustling students, Sora felt alone. She should've expected it; of course this was bound to happen. She really shouldn't have turned around to look, it only made it worse.

Even though she could still imagine Tai's infectious laughter, even though he had been so close before, even though he was still her best friend, it was like she had already lost him.

**Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Eh, I didn't really like how that chapter ended. I generally like my chapter endings to have a real punch, y'know? Anyway, thanks so much for putting up with me all this time! It sure has been a while, right? **

**Yeah, it seems like there were a lot of losses in this chapter, especially for Matt and Joe. I wanted it to be a bit of a backwards recap of the beginning of chapter 6, in that the relationships of the boys have changed and even broken up. Chapter 6 seems like a long time ago now… wow. **

**Anyway, I hope you liked it! Please, please, please review! **


	15. Stop Calling it PMS When it's Not! pt 1

**Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Welcome to 2011! Here's hoping that there will be much great fanfiction and fandom moments for all your favourite ships! ^_^ Haha, what a nerdy greeting. Anyway, I can't guarantee timely updates still, unfortunately. But I will try my hardest to stop being a slacker and get writing. **

**Here's chapter 15! (haha, at least it's not 3 months late!) **

…**Crap, that chapter title looks like it belongs in Gintama.**

**Chapter 15: Stop Calling it PMS When it's Not! (pt 1)**

"But really, Sora," said Catherine, the smile on her face beaming so bright Sora had to look away. "Tai really is the sweetest guy alive!"

"How so?" Sora asked, just as she knew Catherine wanted her to.

_Of course he is. Who didn't already know that, you moron. _She scolded herself as Catherine began talking excitedly and without pause about their last date and how he'd held her hand and and and…

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Tai, or to Catherine to feel this way. But how could her feelings possibly be justified? Even if she told herself she had a right to feel even a tiny bit jealous- after all, Tai was her best friend, wasn't he?

It was true what they said then, wasn't it? You just never know what you have until it's gone. Yet at the same time, Sora realized it wasn't quite like that either, because she had always known who Tai was, the things that made him so special to her, the way he was so sweet, goofy, cheerful, funny-

"-Sora?" Catherine was looking at her with a worried expression. "Sora, what's wrong? Are you listening to me?"

"Huh?" Sora tried to smile. "What?"

Catherine frowned. "You're looking very red, Sora. What is it?"

Sora started as she realized that her face was flushing so hard it was practically steaming. "Nothing!" She cried. "I'm fine!"

_This won't do… This won't do at all! _She breathed in and out deeply in an attempt to calm herself. _I can't… I've got to stop feeling like this! He's my best friend. Tai's my best friend. I should be happy for him, for Catherine as well, but… But I… What am I going to do? _

The weight of the situation bore down on her, and suddenly she couldn't help it, tears sprang to her eyes, her vision became blurry. She hated it when this happened, it wasn't even like it was worth crying over, she wasn't even sad, she was just… just frustrated!

"…Sora?" Catherine's voice was softer now, gentler. Her long blonde hair fell down her shoulders, her face sympathetic. Why did she have to be so perfect? Sora thought as she tried to blink the tears away, she couldn't hate her even if she tried.

"…I'm sorry," Sora said aloud, but her voice came out shaking. "It's just... I dunno, I just suddenly…"

Sora was surprised when a comforting hand reached out to grab her shoulder and Catherine gave her warm hug. "Don't worry. I won't ask," She said gently.

At that moment, Sora felt a huge mixture of guilt and anguish and self-anger burning in her stomach. Catherine… was always such a good friend. She'd always supported _her _in everything, she was always gentle and loving and caring. She always seemed so perfect in every way.

In comparison, Sora was feisty, sometimes short-tempered, easily jumped to conclusions. She was not very gentle at all, not quite feminine enough, just not… comparable. It made sense, she thought, it made perfect sense why Tai deserved someone like Catherine.

And Sora hadn't actually thought of it this way before, all she's ever considered was helping out Catherine, and how that was her duty as a friend. She hadn't thought about Tai and what would be best for him.

_I… really am a horrid friend, huh? _Sora grumbled to herself, angry, frustrated with herself, with those stupid tears…

Catherine laughed a little. "It's okay, I know."

"H-huh?"

"It's that time again, isn't it?"

_What? _Sora blinked in confusion. _Waaaaiiitt! It's not!_

_

* * *

_

It was Catherine's birthday the coming Tuesday. Tai frowned as he stood in his room staring at the calendar. It was a Saturday morning, so that left him three days to get her a present, counting today.

"Matt?" Tai said, "What kind of present should you give a girl?"

Matt rolled over from where he was sprawled out on Tai's bed with a PSP in his hand. "What?"

Tai turned and frowned at Matt. "It's Catherine's birthday this week. What should I get her? What do you give a girl for her birthday?"

Matt grumbled as he groggily pulled himself up and his eyes away from the PSP screen. "I dunno. What do you give Sora for her birthday?"

"I ask her what she wants and I get it." Tai said matter-of-factly. "But that's different-"

"How's it different? Sora's a girl. Why can't you just ask Catherine what she wants?"

"It _is _different! Sora's my best friend! It's different from a girlfriend!"

"…is it?" Matt looked curiously over at Tai, his attention fully distracted from the game in his hands. "I've never given any of my girlfriends a birthday present."

Tai, forgetting about his own problems turned away from the calendar and stared with disbelief at Matt. "Are you serious?"

"…well, it's not like I can remember any of their birthdays in the first place." Matt argued. "Besides, why are you stressing out so much about it? How long have you been dating Catherine? A week?"

"Two weeks, Matt." Tai corrected. "And yeah, you're right, so she is my first girlfriend, and it hasn't been that long so I shouldn't worry so much. But I just thought that it's the right thing to do. …Girls are bloody hard to understand, but shouldn't you at least be considerate enough to celebrate simple things like their birthday?"

Tai's words hit Matt like a bullet.

Matt was silent as he lowered his eyes away from his mate's.

"_You're such a jerk…" _

"_It's none of your business! You ruin _everything_!"_

"_You know what you could've done, Matt Ishida, YOU COULD'VE ASKED!"_

Suddenly it was like he was seething. Like all he could hear in his head were the words of that stupid girl Mimi Tachikawa, and it pissed him off so much. He hated it, dammit. He hated seeing her with Shin, he hated how for whatever reason it was, he couldn't get her out of his head- her stupid haughty voice, the pout she pulled, her gorgeous pink hair, the way she smiled and how she would never, _ever _smile that way at him, because she was always upset when he was around.

"Dude, that's my PSP you're holding."

Matt looked down at where his hands were clutching the console so hard that the plastic casing was creaking. Matt sighed and let out a long breath, calming himself down.

"You know, Tai, you're not really in position to lecture me about how to treat a girlfriend."

"Yeah, I know."

"No matter how you look at it, Sora _is _a girl, after all."

"…why do you keep bringing up Sora?" Tai's voice had an edge to it.

"…why do you keep denying the truth?" Matt challenged him.

"I don't get it! What are you talking about? Sora's my best friend, all right? I'm talking about Catherine here!" Tai said loudly.

"That's the whole reason you're trying so hard, isn't it?" Matt said knowingly.

"What?" Tai frowned.

"It doesn't matter what different labels you try to give them. It doesn't change anything."

"I don't get it. All I wanted to know was what-"

Matt carefully placed the PSP gently on the bed and got up. "I have to do something."

"Matt, you didn't even answer-"

He clapped a hand on Tai's shoulder for a moment before he left. Matt smiled ruefully. "You should stop lying to yourself, mate."

* * *

_Crap, what did I just do? _Matt's face flamed as he realized the whole load of nonsense that had come out of his mouth right before he left to Kamiya apartment. It simply wasn't like him to suddenly overanalyze everything and suddenly make deep observations that sort of made sense in a creepy kind of way.

And even now, Matt looked around him, suddenly he was out in the streets, at the shopping district, where the hell where his feet taking him anyway? Where was he even going?

What did he even mean when he told Tai he had something to do? It was a Saturday! Last time he checked, there was nothing in his schedule! What…

What was he doing here, what did he expect to find? He slowed to a stop suddenly, remembering _her _giggling voice and the way she smiled at _him. _His blood began to boil, literally.

What the hell?

Was he hoping to run into _her _somehow? Was he afraid of seeing _her_ with _him_? His chest tightened as he replayed the scene of Shin looking at him, Mimi standing there. How Shin told her, told her "It's nothing," and then proceeded to place his fricking hand on her fricking face and fricking all-romantic-like turn her away from him.

"_Who do you think? She's ditzy, she never shuts up and she's so bossy! She always moves around with a posse of girls around her, and it's as though she's the queen of the school or something! I can't stand girls who are high-handed and haughty like her!"_

"_I can't stand long wavy pink hair." _

"_And I don't like haughtiness and conceitedness and the really fast proud way that she talks and how all the other guys fawn over her. And I don't like how everyone talks about how pretty she is, when she actually isn't that hot. And…" _

He disliked her stupid long wavy pink hair, the way she flicked it over her shoulder, how sometimes she tied it up in that really cute stupid ponytail thing on the side of her head. And her annoyingly high-pitched voice, and her annoying laughter and her…

"_It doesn't matter what different labels you try to give them. It doesn't change anything."_

It doesn't… change anything.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of pink flashing past him. Turning hurriedly, he watched the girl walk across the street, long wavy pink hair rippling down her back, before she turned and dissappeared into the street around the corner.

Matt darted across the road, not bothering to check for cars first. The horns blared at him, but it was like all he could think about at the moment was that pink hair. He pushed his way past the people on the path, all he could hear was the sound of his feet thumping against the concrete, he kept his eyes fixed on the girl at the end of the street.

At the end of the street she turned to go into one of the stores, and that's when Matt saw her face. It wasn't her.

And Matt came to a stop, breathing hard, the wind knocked out of him. And all he could think of was how he fricking hated wavy pink hair.

* * *

Sora really didn't think it was a good idea to go shopping with Tai, what with the precarious way she was feeling at the moment and how she was afraid she might slip up and if worse came to worse, burst into tears like she had done in the morning with Catherine.

"_But, Soraaa…"_ There was his whining voice bleating through the phone. _"I need your help!" _

"But Tai, I don't think-" In the past, before she'd found out Tai's feelings for her, she would never have trouble turning him down. Even now, even though Tai was technically with someone else, for some reason, she couldn't…

"_Aw, c'mon Sora! You're my best friend!" _And then, of course he had to pull out the best friend card.

But Sora was having a hard time thinking of him as just that.

"_Please? Matt the jerk wouldn't give me any advice today, what the heck's wrong with him anyway? Sora, you're a girl, so-"_

"Of course I'm a girl!" She suddenly snapped and immediately regretted it.

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

Sora berated herself for being such an idiot. Why did she have to be so snappy, so fierce? Especially now, with Tai.

The awkward silence between them only seemed magnified through the phone line. She became scared that maybe this… awkwardness between them now really couldn't be fixed, and then… and what then?

"Tai," she said, trying to push her voice to be cheerful and relaxed, like normal, "Where are you? I'll meet you there."

* * *

"_Of course I'm a girl!"_

Tai frowned as he looked down at the phone in his hand, bewildered. _Yeah, I already knew that. What'd she blow up for? _

"_No matter how you look at it, Sora_ is_ a girl, after all." _He became reminded of what Matt had said this morning, and still couldn't work out why it mattered all of a sudden.

"_What are you so worried about? We're best friends, aren't we?" _Sora's smile from that time way back at the arcade beamed into his head. That was right after the time he'd realized his best mate Sora had grown into a gorgeous teenage girl and was struggling with how to treat her. Then she'd played the best friend card, of course, as though she wanted to be treated as Sora, as herself, as usual.

God, Tai let out a huge sigh as he shoved his phone into his pocket. Why did girls have to be so bloody confusing all the time? One moment they wanted you to treat them like blokes, and then the next moment like girls. For crying out loud!

He leaned back against the outside wall of the department store and watched the pedestrians pass him.

"_You should stop lying to yourself, mate." _Tai lowered his head to hide his weak smile.

_But Matt… that's the only thing I'm good at. _

**That's it for this chapter, folks! ^_^ In case you haven't noticed with that last section, Tai will be regaining part of the spotlight from now on. I dunno, I always find it easy to write in his point of view. **

**Originally the Sora-goes-with-Tai-to-buy-Catherine-a-present story was supposed to be completed in this chapter, but the first two sections and the Matt-chasing-after-pink-haired-girl part ended up longer that I expected. So I've decided to divide the story into two parts for more reader-digestible chunks. (No actually, it's because I've been writing for 4 hours straight and if I write anymore now it'll be crap.)**

**So… check back later for part 2! ^_^ Please review! **


	16. Stop Calling it PMS When it's Not! pt 2

**Disclaimer: Digimon does not belong to meeee! _**

**On with the Sora-goes-with-Tai-to-buy-Catherine-a-present story! Please read and review! **

**Holy cow! It's been so long since I last updated, I've completely forgot what I was planning to do with this storyline. _ Sometimes, I get these amazing ideas and know just what I'm going to do, and then I completely forget when I get around to writing again… sigh…**

**Well, let's see how it turns out…**

**Chapter 16: Stop Calling it PMS When it's Not. (part 2) **

Tai's smiling face hadn't changed.

It was still the same, his carefree grin, his happy laughter. Watching him, Sora felt her heart ache. And it was stupid, she berated herself, it was _Tai_! Of course… of course she wanted him to be happy. Of course she didn't want him to be different, to have changed. But…

He was leaning against the glass front of the department store. His hands were in his pockets, his gaze lowered to the ground, eyes closed, as if dozing off.

He was so endearing, Sora couldn't fight back her smile.

A security guard came out of the department store and scolded him for loitering in front of the display and leaning against the glass.

Tai looked stunned, "Is that not allowed? Really?"

The security guard let out a further string of words and didn't sound friendly.

Tai put up his hands and backed off the store front. "Whoa, okay! I'm sorry, man."

Suddenly, he raised his head and noticed Sora standing nearby. He wasn't embarrassed at all, just immediately burst into a huge grin, and raised his hand energetically to wave at her. "HEY! Sora!"

She watched him run towards her, carefree grin stretching across his face.

And he was so happy, just like usual, just like the Tai she'd always known. And even though he was her best friend, and she should be happy that he was smiling, secretly, actually… she kind of wished he wasn't.

Because it hurt to be miserable by yourself.

* * *

Matt slowed his breathing right down as he made his way down the street, ran a hand through his blonde hair, tried to catch his breath back.

As he turned the corner, he noticed two teenage girls looking at him, one of them blushed bright red as their eyes met. Almost like a reflex action, his mouth widened into a teasing smirk, which made both girls squeal.

He could see that the braver of the two was nudging the other one to walk over and talk to him. And Matt knew that if they came to chat with him, then he'd be set with dates for the rest of the week. Also, then he wouldn't look like a rejected loser out here in the city by himself.

The shy girl gathered up her courage. Matt paused and wondered if he should stay and wait for them. Then he wondered why he would wonder such a thing.

_It could be so easy._ Turn around, Matt, he thought, turn around, go and talk to them. Hang out, chat one (or both) of them up. Catch a movie together, something. Just stop…

_Stop…_

As he turned his head back to look at them, someone's wavy pink hair brushed past his shoulder as they walked past.

…_stop thinking about her. _

* * *

"What is it?" Shin turned to look behind him, the street stretched down the road, people spilling over the footpath. "Is something wrong?"

Mimi turned back to him and pasted a smile on her face. "Nah, I just thought I saw something."

He smiled in return, gentlemanly as always and then tightened his grip around her hand.

* * *

"What game do you wanna play first?" Tai asked.

Sora looked at the video game arcade in front of her, the air hockey table, the basketball hoops, the Time Crisis, the DDR machine. The cheery jingly music and the sound of tickets rolling out of machines, the bright colours and the laughter of the kids and teenagers inside.

She frowned at Tai. "…I thought you needed help to choose Catherine a present."

He shrugged. "Yeah."

"Then why-"

And he just grabbed her arm and pulled her inside, all she could see was the side of his face, the beaming smile on it. "Because I said so."

"Hey!" She tried to protest, pull away, mainly because his sudden touch on her arm made her face heat up. "Tai-"

For some reason, he didn't look at her. His voice softened. "We're best friends, aren't we? …for some reason, it just feels like it's been a long time since we last hang out."

And even though that smile never left his face, Sora felt as if that was his way of saying goodbye.

"Do you know what Catherine's favourite colour is?" Sora asked, as she followed Tai down the aisle of the department store.

"Hm?" Tai turned his head to look at Sora. He smiled. "Easy. Light purple."

As he turned his head back to the front and walked on, he started to hum a cheerful song. Sora stared at his profile, her steps falling further behind his.

His voice was carefree, light. "Do you think she'd like this colour purple more or this one? What are the names again? Lavender? Violet? How can there be so many different names for the same colour?"

"…Girls sure are weird, right, Sora? How can they even tell the difference-" He suddenly noticed that Sora was no longer right behind him. "…Sora?"

Sora couldn't help it, didn't know what was wrong with her. Every thing he said, all his words, his comments, they were so- so… normal. And she knew it was so wrong for her to expect something different, what was _wrong _with her, she should be happy, Tai was normal- Tai was happy, so why- why couldn't she even- dammit- even think clearly- she just-

"Sora, what's wrong?"

She blinked and her eyes widened as she noticed he was standing right in front of her. Suddenly, it was as if she couldn't handle how close his face was to her, how worried his look, how much the concern shone in his warm brown eyes…

Her eyes seemed to sting.

Dammit, what was _wrong _with her? Her emotions felt frail and brittle, hanging on by a thread, threatening to break at any moment.

_I shouldn't… I shouldn't be feeling like this. I shouldn't… _but…

She tried to pull herself together, pasted the brightest smile she could muster on her face, hoped her voice sounded normal.

"Then… what's _my_ favourite colour, Tai?"

For a moment, he looked stunned, confused at her sudden question.

Then, his eyes relaxed and he simply replied: "It's red."

* * *

"I don't know! And I'll feel stupid if I have to walk into this girly store and get her that handbag, even if she would really like it!" Tai complained, throwing his hands in the air.

He gave Sora a pleading look. "Can't you go in there and get it?"

Sora rolled her eyes. "No, because then that wouldn't count as you buying her that present."

He turned away and ran a hand exasperatedly through his messy brown hair.

"…but why are you worrying so much anyway?" Sora said. "She'll like whatever you get her, you know." _'cause she likes you that much…_

"…yeah, I guess." Tai sighed and then let out a hearty laugh. "I've just never really bought a present for a girl before!"

It wasn't until Tai heard a sharp intake of breath that he realized he had said something horrible wrong, once again. Sora was standing beside him, hands on her hips, whatever sadness had been weighing her down gone, just her usual fiery fierceness.

…_crap! _Tai realized too late, that Sora's bottom lip was trembling and it looked like her eyes were watering.

"Right. Thanks." She spoke coldly, and then turned away.

As she turned from him, she realized her breath was stuck in her throat and for some reason, her voice was sounding strange, as if trying to hold back tears. And it was stupid, she knew it, she was acting like a brat.

She knew Tai didn't really mean it like that.

Usually, maybe, she'd act a little standoffish, and when Tai became flustered and apologized, she'd laugh it all off, it'd all be okay. Because they were best friends.

But, for some reason, she couldn't find it in herself to look at him anymore, and she didn't mean to, but her feet started moving faster and faster, and she was almost running down the street.

"Sora!" Tai's voice was calling after her.

She could hear his footsteps thudding on the pavement after her, and she bit her lip and felt a tear slip down her cheek.

_Why? _She demanded to herself. Why, how come- why is it that every single time, they always end up repeating the same pattern? It was always the same. Tai... being Tai, clueless, careless but well-meaning- and her- impatient and stubborn- always the same cycle of running and being chased. Always of Tai trying to apologize to her, when in fact it was her fault- constantly misunderstanding and quick to jump to conclusions.

_I guess that's why. _She thought ruefully. _I guess that's why we can't be together, because it'd never work out. Because we'd just end up doing this over and over again, and no matter how many times Tai is always willing to take the blame and make things right again, I guess I already knew that it would never work. _

_That's why he should be with Catherine. It's perfectly logical, balanced out, the best thing for Tai._

"Sora!" He was shouting again.

With a shock, she realized that she'd unconsciously slowed down, and he was right behind her. Before she could get away, he had grabbed her arm and the serious look on his face made her stop.

"I'm sorry," he said with a slight smile. "I didn't mean it."

She felt her shoulders relax and she tried to sniff back the stupid tears threatening to spill.

"Geez," he said good-naturedly. "Girls are so emotional. Matt was right, what have I gotten myself into?"

He was smiling again, his usual Tai grin.

Sora turned back to him and hurriedly brushed away the tears in her eyes.

Tai looked shocked. Flustered, he stumbled over his words: "Y-you're crying? What's wrong? I'm really sorry, I thought-"

"Nah, it's okay," She smiled as hard as she could. "It's my fault. I'm just-"

…_really pretty miserable at the moment. _

His smile vanished, and he stood there and looked at her for what felt like a long time.

"I really didn't mean it, you know." He said seriously. "I just… it's different. Um, well…" He looked down, his cheeks showing that telltale sign of embarrassment, flushing light pink. "You and me- we're…"

His voice trailed off, as if he no longer knew the answer.

Memories of that day back then- that rejected confession- came flooding back to both of them.

"…best friends." Tai finished.

* * *

After that, he didn't say anything anymore. Instead, his hand grabbed hers and pulled her along the street, around the bend and back towards the city centre. Sora looked at his back, he looked taller than she remembered, and his grip on her hand was strong.

Abruptly, they came to a stop.

Tai let go of her hand and started digging in his pocket for coins. Sora looked at what was in front of them. It was a claw machine, soft toys piled up behind the glass.

"…Tai? What are you doing?"

He didn't look at her, instead, pushing in two coins and grabbing the control sticks.

The steel claw edged closer to the purple stuffed bunny and then abruptly stopped. Tai cursed under his breath and then reached in his pocket for more change.

On his third attempt, the claw finally touched the stuffed rabbit and with plenty of time to spare. But Tai kept pushing it past the rabbit and towards the teddy bear behind it.

Sora was confused.

Tai said nothing, his face a picture of concentration.

The claw almost dropped the teddy bear on its way to the chute. Tai jammed the control stick hard and managed to move the teetering prize successfully to the hatch. The soft toy tumbled out, it was light brown with a bright red ribbon around its neck.

"Here." Tai put the teddy bear into Sora's hands. "Stop crying, okay?" He smiled wonkily.

She didn't know what to say.

"You like bears more than rabbits, and your favourite colour is red." He said as if that could explain everything.

"But…" Her arms tightened around the stuffed bear.

He straightened and stretched his arms up over his head. "Come on, it's time to go."

It was late afternoon, the sunlight spraying a warm orange glow around his shadow. It was late and he still hadn't gotten a present for Catherine.

They walked in relative silence back down the street, Sora musing at how his shadow now stretched so much longer than hers. Looking across the road at the reflective glass of the department store, her and Tai, just two best friends walking together…

"Hey," she said.

"Yeah?"

She stopped. "I know what you should get Catherine for her birthday." Her thoughts drifted back to that purple stuffed rabbit in the claw machine.

Tai turned around and looked at her, surprise on his face.

She smiled. "Just be yourself. Take her out for the day. Buy her ice cream. Let her watch while you win her a birthday present from the claw machine."

_She'll love that, definitely._

It was as if a light dawned on Tai's face. "Ohh... Yeah."

Sora grinned her hardest and hugged the teddy bear to her chest. "Thanks for today, Tai. And… thanks for the bear."

"Ah, yeah, it's okay," He was at a lost for words.

She paused before she turned and leave. "…I'll… see you at school."

"Thanks for coming," he tried a grin. "See ya."

And Sora walked until she knew he couldn't see her anymore before breaking into a run, because the tears had started streaming down her face.

Tai stood in the street, listening to the buzz of traffic and people brushing past him, watching her retreating back.

_Well… that was awkward. _He thought drily to himself. Scratching his head, he looked skyward and sighed heavily.

Girls really were weird. And Sora, even though she'd always been different, had been acting strange today too. Tai shrugged as he shoved his hands into his pockets and started his walk home.

Speaking of weird, Matt sure had been acting odd today. What was with that spiel of seriousness? What was with that odd argument they had had before he left in such a hurry?

Tai thought again of Sora and her sudden change from tears to that bright smile she gave him before she left.

_Is it just me, or does everyone have PMS today? _

**Well… that was an abrupt change of pace. Sorry. The whole reason the title for the last two chapters were so silly was completely because I wanted to use that oneliner. *gets hit by barrage of flying objects.***

**Sorry for the long wait. I've been working on this for the last couple of days. I admit, I've been a bit distracted due to the fact I've just recently gotten into a new fandom. (It's KHR) *gets hit by angry Taiora readers***

**But I'm alive, not dead, like some of you may have presumed. (Cheers, TheOtherGuy4544!) **

**Originally, there was going to be a Matt/Mimi ultimatum type thing in this chapter, but I'll put that in next time so you've got something to look forward to. I wanted this chapter to be a bit more Tai/Sora- focused, because this is the last real interaction you'll see them in for a while. **

**Until then- please review and see you next time! Ciaossu! *gets shot***


	17. One More Time

**Whassup, everyone? I'm baaackkkk! But I might as well not be, since I'm so bad at getting down to it and writing. My novel is so close to being finished but when I sit down to write it, I end up not writing anything 'cause I'm such a lazy slacker. Rargh. Still, while it's the holidays, must… churn out… fanfic chapters… for all you devoted readers who never give up on me… **

**Yes, you guys are the reason why I still write fanfiction. Enjoy chapter 17! **

**Chapter 17: One More Time. **

The school corridor was noisy as students bustled past to get to their classes. Sora closed her locker door, only to have to swing back out and into her face.

_Ouch… _She nursed her red nose and went to slam her locker door harder into its metal frame.

It was like waiting for a gap in the traffic. She waited for her chance to edge into the river of students pushing and making their way down the hallway. Seeing a small space available, she meant to walk in, but was distracted by the couple up ahead.

They didn't see her, but she knew that if she followed, she'd have to talk to them.

She watched Tai and Catherine as they walked past. She didn't think it was possible before, but now she knew. It was possible to have a _perfect couple. _They were like the happy pair in the movies, the picture-perfect couple you saw in ads. Catherine had her arm looped around Tai's and he was carrying her books, although Catherine kept insisting cutely that she could carry them herself.

The people around them pushed and made their way past, and Tai carefully navigated their way through so that Catherine wouldn't get pushed around by the crowd.

"Hey, watch it," he called out to the eighth-grader who was tossing a football over the heads of the students. Even when he was being protective of his girlfriend, his voice was friendly and carefree, just like he always was.

Sora wondered if Tai had ended up taking Catherine out for her birthday. She wondered if he had bought Catherine ice cream from that place where they always ate ice cream together. She wondered if Tai had won Catherine a toy from a claw machine. She wondered if Tai had just been himself, and if Catherine had loved him just the same.

While she was distracted and lost in her thoughts, someone bumped into her shoulder.

"Sorry." someone said softly from beside her.

Sora looked over to see who it was. The girl looked just as surprised to see her. She was hugging a pile of text books to her chest, her glossy black hair fell in waves around her shoulders and her fingernails were painted light blue.

"Ah!" Sora started, "You're Joe's…"

…_ex-girlfriend._

She couldn't make herself say the rest of the words, because it just didn't sound right. So she let her words trail off, because they both knew what she meant.

* * *

"Hitomi." she said. "My name's Hitomi."

Sora nodded from where she stood in the now empty school corridor. In the distance, they could hear the sound of laughter, of students mucking about during recess.

Hitomi relaxed as she leaned against the window, the white light of the cloudy sky lighting up her back. "Did you want to ask me something?"

"Oh…" Sora looked up at the older girl. "I… I always just thought that since you and Joe were going out, as his friend, I should get to know you. But…"

Hitomi laughed, her laughter was gentle and delicate, but had an edge of sadness.

After all, they both knew it was over.

But Sora was a curious girl, and being herself, she was not exactly inclined to let the situation drop for matters of politeness. And she was opinionated, whether it was to people she knew well or people she barely knew at all.

And even though she'd heard of what Joe's ex-girlfriend had done, she'd heard from Matt and the others of her cheating and lying; looking at Hitomi now, she couldn't bring herself to dislike her. The image of the gentle, hardworking student that had made Joe so happy for the last few months was still there.

She knew she had a right to interrogate her. She was Sora; she stood up for her friends. The thought of someone who would treat Joe badly made her angry.

"I don't get it." Sora spoke up. "You and Joe… you guys seemed to fit together so well. I mean, I never talked to you before, but I saw you guys around. You were always holding hands, or studying together at the library. Joe was always smiling when he was with you. Why would you…? How could-?"

_-you just break his heart like that? _

Joe's ex-girlfriend seemed to cringe as Sora's voice grew desperate. "…did we really look like a picture-perfect couple to everyone then?"

Sora frowned at the other girl, who avoided her gaze and instead turned to look out the window, which overlooked the playing field.

She followed Hitomi's gaze down out the window. She could hardly make out the faces of the people that ran around and played on the field from up here, but she thought she could see the number of Tai's soccer jersey.

"…I was surprised that he would go out with me."

Hitomi didn't look away from the window, her eyes were downcast and her voice soft.

"I didn't believe that he would like me. 'cause look at us-" at this she laughed, "-we're just so different!"

At this, Hitomi finally pulled her gaze away from the window and leaned her back against the glass. "I mean, Joe is so smart and hardworking. He studies every day, and only goes out after his assignments are done or well underway. He's always responsible and careful. And he does extremely well in all his classes and assignments. I really liked him, but I couldn't handle that. I thought we were too different, but he liked me anyway. When he asked me out, I thought I was dreaming."

Suddenly, she turned and asked Sora: "What did Joe and the others tell you?"

Sora was surprised at the sudden question. "Just that you guys broke up. …Matt was a bit more… rude about it, I guess."

"I lied." Hitomi admitted. "I lied to Joe a lot."

Sora had heard that, but she wasn't prepared for what Hitomi said next.

"I thought that if I lied, if I could pretend to be more like Joe's ideal girlfriend, then he'd like me. I'm not as smart Joe is, I'm not good at studying and I have trouble with schoolwork and assignments. Joe always said that if I needed help, he would help me. He always offered that we could study together and work on our projects together. But I felt bad about it, because he spent so much time trying to help me so that I understood. And the more he offered to help, the more I realized that I was slipping up. That he'd know I wasn't as smart as I seemed. So I started to tell him that I was okay with everything, and that my assignments were finished even when they weren't. And we could go out then and everything was cool. But when time was running out and I had to struggle to manage everything all on my own, I just kept lying about why I couldn't see him."

"It was like I was dragging him down, you know?" She smiled now, but Sora saw that she was miserable. "I couldn't bear to be less than the ideal girlfriend that would suit him. I tried to be smart enough, so I worked with my tutor as much as I could."

"Your tutor?"

"Yeah. I've known him since I was little. He's like an older brother to me. Sometimes we go out together when I need a break."

Sora put together the information she had gathered. "Hitomi," she realized, "You never did cheat on Joe, did you?"

Hitomi blinked. "No." She smiled softly. "But it doesn't really matter what he thinks anymore. It's over."

"It's not over!" Sora burst out, suddenly fired up. She didn't even notice that her hands were clenched into fists. "Hitomi, it's definitely not over!"

Hitomi looked at her with wide eyes. "Sora, I appreciate what you're saying but-"

Sora was furious now, angry for Hitomi's sake, angry for Joe's sake. "Don't you even know what Joe was going through the whole time he was with you? You kept thinking you weren't smart enough for him; he kept thinking he wasn't cool enough for you! So you're right, you two are as different as can be, but… but the fact that you both worried so much over it just proves how much you care for each other!"

"Sora…"

"It's all so simple!" She exclaimed. "All you ever had to do was tell him!"

Hitomi smiled her gentle smile and reached out a hand to touch Sora on the shoulder.

"Just tell him the truth!" Sora was saying, "Just-"

"It's okay. Thankyou, Sora."

The sound of the school bell rang then; its chiming pierced the air and echoed through the empty corridors.

"…maybe it's better this way," Hitomi said quietly as she turned away to leave.

"Don't say that." Sora argued. "Really, Hitomi, you just have to tell him! Tell him your feelings! Please… just tell him…!"

Hitomi turned back to look at Sora. She broke into a calm understanding smile. "Maybe you should take your own advice."

"…what?" Sora stared at the older girl.

"…you've only been staring out the window at Taichi Kamiya for the last half an hour or so."

And no matter what had been said before, Sora refused to believe that Hitomi wasn't smart.

* * *

Tai missed the ball.

"Dude, Tai, what was that? It was coming straight at you!" One of the boys standing down the other end of the field was shouting across at him.

Tai raised a hand to wave at him. "Sorry! My bad!"

As he ran to get the ball, he couldn't help glancing up at the school building, at the windows that overlooked the field.

For a moment back then, he didn't know why, he swore that Sora had been nearby. Maybe she'd been watching him? Looking upwards at the window, he saw nobody, maybe just the shadow of someone walking away from it.

The bell had rung, and people were making their way back inside for classes. Tai kicked the soccer ball in a beautiful arc across the field where one of the boys standing there caught it easily.

As he followed the others across the field, he thought how odd it was that he always seemed to be looking up for Sora, as if she'd always be up there. Like those times when he waited for Sora outside her apartment building, waiting for her to look down at him and grin that wicked smile she always had.

Even it had just been lunchtime soccer, just a game of mucking about, even if he had missed that embarrassing last kick, he almost wished that Sora had been around to see it.

* * *

Matt had had the whole weekend to think about it. And after the whole weekend, he'd had the last four and a half school days to try to stretch his mind around the very idea.

He'd never felt so confused before in his life.

Denial. He was very good at it. That was one thing he knew for sure. The rest… it had all just melted away to nothing.

It was just because she was the one girl he couldn't have. That was it. Matt was a selfish bastard. The more he couldn't have something, the more he wanted it.

At least, that was the furthest his apparently rational thinking got him.

He couldn't stop thinking about her. All the time, every day, his thoughts drifted back to her. At first, it had all been about how stupidly high-handed she was, her annoying wavy pink hair, her never-ending voice that chattered on non-stop. Then it got worse. Before he knew it, he was thinking how much he liked her haughtiness, the proud way she carried herself. He wanted to touch that wavy pink hair of hers, those curls that flowed down her back. And her mindless chatter, her endless talking? He never wanted her to stop.

And now he stood outside the school gate, struggling to compose himself. The words were still muddled up in his head; he wasn't sure how he was going to explain himself.

He could see her coming down the path to the gate now, and his heart literally skipped a beat.

Unfortunately, beside her was that royal jerk Shin, who had recently been acting as if he and Mimi were actually going out.

Matt shoved his hands into his pockets and breathed out angrily. _Fine! _He thought to himself. _See if I care! I'm going to stand here and wait all afternoon if I have to until I can get her alon_e.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Shin was asking, already reaching out to carry Mimi's bag.

"Huh?" Mimi looked up at Shin's smiling face and flushed. "N-no, I'll be all right."

Shin pulled a face like he was hurt. "Aw. Well, I'll be going now…"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Shin made as if to leave, then suddenly turned around to face her. "Oh. I almost forgot. What we talked about, y'know, on Saturday?" His voice lowered and a slight blush crossed his face. "…will you think about it?"

Mimi smiled and waved. "Yeah. I will."

Shin left through the school gate, but was too distracted to notice Matt, who had heard the whole exchange. God, he hated that smug bastard.

He straightened up now from where he had been leaning against the school gate to turn towards the school entrance. The school was almost empty, just the few loitering students taking their time as they dawdled towards the gate. Mimi was the only one standing out the front, school bag was slung over her shoulder and she hugged it towards her chest as she texted crazily on her phone with her other hand.

"Tachikawa!" He called out as he walked over.

She looked up in surprise, but before the disgust could appear on her face, Matt cut in:

"One more time." He said.

"What?" the confusion was evident on Mimi's face.

"We went out once before and I screwed it up. One more time. Go out with me."

**What? Where are your manners, Matt? It just looked so odd, that last line but putting the word 'please' anywhere in that last sentence didn't work. **

**School's back tomorrow, so don't hold your breath for another update for a little while. I'm sorry for the long waits and the inconsistent gaps between chapters. It's hard to write and live at the same time, isn't it? Haha! **

**You readers and reviewers really mean so much to me. Thanks to you guys, I can keep writing! So all this fanfiction is dedicated to every one of you! **

**Anyway, I have to say I quite liked this chapter, so I hope you did too. Please click on that REVIEW BUTTON OF JOY and tell me what you think! **


	18. It's not Past Tense at all

**Hahaha, whassup you all? I'M ALIVE! Anyway, it's the holidays now, so let's hopefully see some updates. I'm holding out for this fic to be finished in the next month and planning for about 3 chapters to finish it off. Anyway, sorry for the long wait as usual. Hopefully, it will be a short wait to the end from now on! Please read and review! **

**Chapter 18: It's not Past Tense at all. **

"…what?"

Mimi's face was the picture of confusion, her mouth open, eyebrows knitted close together as she stared back at Matt.

Matt felt his face turn uncharacteristically red. "…you heard me." He muttered.

Mimi kept staring.

Matt began to feel uncomfortable. He swore at himself under his breath, asked himself what the hell was wrong with him- why the hell would he even _want _to go out with her- what- and how stupid- he-

A corner of Mimi's lips turned up slightly. "I dunno. That was kinda rude."

Now it was Matt's turn to stare. His face flamed up and he opened his mouth to complain: "Hey-"

But Mimi simply shrugged her shoulders before turning to leave.

He was suddenly struck with how stupid he must look standing there, watching her back to him, seeing her walking away. And how ironic, really, god, he was such a moron-

"Okay."

"Huh?"

She was looking over her shoulder at him, face nonchalant. Then that cheeky grin appeared on her face again. "…you heard me."

And she flicked her long pink hair over her shoulder and walked away, the smile still on her lips.

Matt could only stare at her as she left.

He'd done it. Somehow, he'd almost ended up looking like a complete dolt, but she had agreed! He was the winner in this battle.

But thinking back to her cheeky smile and the wavy pink hair that fell over her shoulder… why did it feel like _he _was the one being duped?

* * *

"Um…there's no easy way to say this but…"

Catherine pursed her lips and frowned, one of her hands reaching up to nervously tuck strands of blonde hair behind her ears.

"What is it?" Sora was worried.

They were standing outside in the street, leaning back from the others going past on the sidewalk. Sora hadn't been out here at the shopping district since last time she came here with Tai. And how ironic it was that they had been here to buy Catherine a present.

Catherine frowned and looked down at her feet, pointed inwards. "I don't mean to be rude or anything and I know that, well, I just-"

"I just…" she looked down at her feet, at her hands, at the sky, anywhere but at Sora. Finally, she got to the point:

"I think you should stop spending so much time with Tai."

"…huh?" Sora stared back at her friend.

Catherine gave out a little light laugh. "Haha, sorry… I… that was out of place, wasn't it? I just… I know you guys have been friends for much longer and I…"

And suddenly Catherine's face crumpled, and she was biting her lip hard and her eyes were shiny from tears.

"…Catherine…" Sora reached out and tried to give her a comforting pat on the back, but Catherine stiffened and refused to meet her gaze. Thoughts were breezing past in Sora's head, but she couldn't give any of them more time, this was her _friend,_ and she…

"Catherine," she said again, gently. "C'mon, let's go somewhere else."

And her shy blonde friend let her take her hand and lead her away.

They sat at the bench across from the ice-cream stand. The spot where Sora used to always sit with Tai, where Tai used to buy her choc-chip ice-cream. She remembered she was still holding Catherine's hand, and these thoughts of Tai should not be in her head! Catherine was her friend. Catherine was Tai's girlfriend.

And Tai was Sora's best friend.

She was shocked that she had thought of that in the past tense.

Catherine's tears had subsided but she hiccupped now, her face shiny from the sticky tear marks left behind. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm sorry, I just-"

And just like she always did, Sora played the role of a good friend. Because after all, that's what she was. "It's okay," she said softly, patting Catherine's hand. "Just let it all out."

Catherine let out a huge breath and tried to calm herself. "I just… I know you and Tai are just best friends but I… I get jealous, you know. 'cause even thought me and Tai go out and spend time together, I just can't… I can't get close to him. And you guys… seem to spend so much time together. I mean, he walks you to school and all-"

"He doesn't." Sora interrupted. "I walk _him_ to school."

"Oh."

"And I don't anymore," Sora added hurriedly. "We haven't walked together in a while."

"Oh…" Catherine's face turned red, and she looked embarrassed. "I guess I was worried over nothing, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess. But…" Sora thought of the day she'd spent with Tai picking out Catherine's present. She thought of Tai and his carefree smile, how determined he was that they should remain best friends.

But… surely…

There was a time when the spot of a girlfriend would have to take over that position, right?

Sora smiled. "I totally understand why you'd be worried. After all, me and Tai have been best friends for almost as long as I can remember. But you know, we've grown up a lot since then… things are different now, I… I guess maybe we're…"

"…you've _outgrown _each other?" Catherine suggested.

"…yeah." Sora smiled with difficulty. "Kind of like that."

"A-anyway," she went on, "the point is I understand. I'll try not to spend so much time with him."

But surely, Sora thought, she'd already 'quit' Tai by her standards. Already, it had felt like Tai and her were 'best friends' in name only, and any of the actions and feelings of that between them had vanished.

Even so, telling those words to Catherine, Sora felt a digging, empty feeling in her stomach.

But Catherine was smiling now, looking far more relaxed. "Thanks, Sora. I'm so glad you understand. Truthfully, I would like you not to talk to him or see him at all, apart from school and all that, but I really shouldn't be that pedantic, since you two are just best friends."

"Yeah," Sora tried to laugh a little. But Catherine's careless words struck her hard. She knew Catherine didn't actually mean anything mean by it all, it was just that she was not the most eloquent person around and she was the kind of person who could say terrible things without noticing or meaning it.

Catherine got to her feet now and pulled Sora up to hers. She smiled a bright, bright smile as she pulled Sora into a hug.

"Thanks so much for everything, Sora!" She beamed. "I feel so much better now. I knew you would understand. You're such a great friend; I can always count on you."

Sora smiled back, but the whole time the empty feeling in her stomach was growing deeper and deeper.

* * *

Joe stood in the library, waiting for his turn to check out books. His arms were heavy with extra textbooks and study material, but actually, they were already lighter than when he first got here. Earlier on, he'd returned all the books he'd borrowed to help Hitomi with her assignments and studying.

He sighed, and stared at the reflection in the glass beside him. He still looked just the same as always; he was never going to be 'cool' like her and the others like her. He pulled at the collar of his shirt and adjusted his thick glasses, in the process accidentally fogging them up with his breath, so fumbling; he took them off to clean them.

He could hardly see anything without the aid of the thick lens, so he was stunned when he saw the blurred colours of someone's black hair and flashes of their pale blue nail polish.

"Joe," she said.

He scrambled to push his glasses back onto the nose, on the way dropping a book from the pile he carried.

She caught it in her slender hands.

He didn't know what to say. "…Hitomi," he managed lamely.

And he wasn't dreaming; it was really her, standing right in front of him. Long black hair and pale blue nail polish and holding the book he dropped.

He opened his mouth to speak, not that he knew what to say, but-

"My hair isn't straightened." she said.

Joe blinked at her. "…what?"

"When I first met you, you told me my hair looked nice. I had straightened my hair that morning so from then on I straightened it every day." Hitomi said.

Joe frowned, not quite understanding.

"I really liked you." She said, staring straight back at him. "But you were so smart, and I knew we weren't the same 'type'. Like, you and the people like you, you're all so smart and academically talented. I'm not… I'm not like that, but I pretended. Because like how I straightened my hair everyday, I wanted you to like me."

The line in front of Joe was diminishing, so that there was now a large gap stretching between Joe and the person before him. But Joe didn't move, frozen in position.

"I know I wasn't smart enough, so I tried to pretend that I was. I liked studying with you at the library and how you helped me with all my work, I just… I just kept feeling like I was dragging you down and I just wasn't clever enough. And it didn't seem fair that you should spend all this time helping me when I… I was never the smart girl you thought I was."

Hitomi smiled now. "I know that things can't be the same anymore. But I'm sorry that we broke up in such a way, I just wanted to let you know that I never cheated on you. I lied though, I lied a lot, and that was wrong. I'm sorry, Joe. I just… I really, really _liked _you."

She hesitated for a moment, and the expression that fell on her face was heavy and pained. She held out Joe's book for him to take, but he didn't move, instead watching the way her fingertips trembled on it.

"…is it past tense?" He mumbled.

Now it was Hitomi's turn to look stunned. "Huh?"

Joe pushed his glasses up his nose, scared to look at her, his gaze set firmly on the book she held out to him. "…what you said. That you really liked me. Is it past tense, or…?"

She stared at him.

Joe lifted up his gaze from the book and stared back at her. "'cause for me, it's not past tense at all."

Hitomi's eyes blurred and she dropped the book. Joe caught in easily, added it to his pile of books and with the other hand reached out to hold hers.

"I still like you," he said quietly, honestly. "And I… I don't mind if you're not 'smart' in the way I am, because I like you for much more than that. I never minded spending time with you, even if it was to help you study, because it was still time spent with you. I… I thought there was a huge chasm between us, between the 'types' of people we belong with. If you were scared of not being smart enough, I was scared of not being 'cool' enough, or popular enough, or good-looking enough or..."

Joe gave a broken laugh. "I guess you know just what it's like, right? I tried to-"

"It's not past tense for me either." She interrupted, and her face was pink now, the beginnings of a smile on her lips. "…I might not be that smart, but… I'm pretty sure the present tense of 'tried' is 'try.' So maybe…"

And Joe was breaking into a smile as well. "You're right."

Hitomi tightened her grip around Joe's hand. "So we can-"

"ARE YOU GUYS IN THE LINE OR NOT?"

They both jerked up to see an irate woman behind Joe stride up to them. "I've been waiting in this library line for long enough, are you guys going or what?"

Joe looked at the check-out counter and then back at him, to the long line of people behind him. He looked back at Hitomi standing in front of him, her hand in his, and felt the weight of the books in his other arm.

"…no." He said. "You can go first."

"But Joe," said Hitomi, "the line's so long, you should-"

Joe just held her hand and led her past the people and all the way back to the end of the queue. "It's okay," he said confidently, "we can try again."

And Hitomi knew he wasn't just talking about the books.

* * *

Tai stared at his mobile phone, willing it to ring or at least vibrate with a message. Nothing.

Rolling back in his wheelie chair, he ran a hand tiredly through his messy brown hair, and rested his feet on his desk. He looked up at the ceiling and emitted a loud sigh.

Why wasn't she… answering?

Sitting straight up again, he checked the messages on his phone, his inbox contained nothing unread, yet his sent box had 35 messages to the same girl, none of which replied to. He considered calling her, but knew she wouldn't pick up, and he'd get to her voice mail again, and he'd only be overwriting his own messages.

He threw the phone back onto the desk. _Sora… _

It felt like it had been years since he last saw her. And he knew that wasn't true, because he'd just seen her last Thursday. But all he could remember really was the side of her head, the sight of her back turned to him, her red hair that curled onto the collar of her green blazer. He tried to recall their last conversation- their last _real _conversation- that wasn't just petty greetings or contrived exchanges between classes.

Tai closed his eyes and couldn't help the hurt feeling manifesting in the pit of his stomach. _I thought we were best friends. _

And then…

_Maybe… we stopped being best friends a long time ago. _

And he couldn't help feeling like it was his fault; he was the one who had screwed it all up, because he… fell in love with her.

He spun around on his wheelie chair, kicked the soccer ball in the corner against his bedroom wall until Kari yelled at him from her room down the hall. He closed his eyes, sung tunelessly to himself, tried to will his thought elsewhere. Considered talking to his girlfriend instead, then scrapped that idea entirely.

He got to his feet. It was Saturday afternoon; he could pay Matt a visit. Then he recalled Matt's distracted comment on Friday night. He had a date on Saturday, but he wouldn't say who with.

Tai gave one last forlorn look at his silent phone, then turned to leave.

* * *

The way to Sora's place was a path he could walk in his sleep. Everything was so familiar, the shortcut across the park, the turn past the second building to his right from the shopping district. Still, for some reason it felt like it had been a long time since he came this way.

The apartment complex where Sora lived towered above him. He stood on the side where he knew Sora's bedroom window was, the one on the far right, three stories up. The curtains were drawn though, and he felt more isolated from her than ever.

He meant to call her, tell her to look down, to come out. But putting his hands into his pockets, he realised he had stupidly left his phone at home.

And he felt angry suddenly, angry at her, angry at himself, angry that these feelings in his chest hadn't dissappeared even after trying so hard to get rid of them.

He looked up to her bedroom window and screamed: "SORA TAKENOUCHI! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! I KNOW YOU'RE THERE, DAMMIT!"

And immediately he felt like a bloody fool, embarrassed and doubting himself that maybe she wasn't there after all. He considered hurling rocks at her window, but was too considerate of the neighbors to do that.

There was silence, then he saw the curtains in the window move. And Sora pushed open the glass and looked down at him, shouting back: "STOP BEING SO LOUD!"

"THEN GET OUT HERE!" He yelled back angrily. "I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!"

She looked furious then, face flushed and mouth pulled downwards. She closed the window almost with a slam and Tai watched as she turned away from it and waited for her to get there.

She came almost running from the lobby, her face flushed with anger and exhaustion. Her red eyes were accusing, her hair messed up and falling into her eyes as she came towards him.

"What is it, Tai?" She asked, quieter now, but her voice still huffy. "You didn't have to be so darn loud, you know."

"Well obviously I did, since you wouldn't listen to me otherwise." He snapped back, looking for a fight.

She reeled back, shocked from his harsh words. Looking at Tai, she could see he was in a bad mood, he was angry and unhappy.

"You've been ignoring me." It wasn't phrased as question or accusation. It was a blunt honest statement.

She opened her mouth to fight back, but he cut her off. "Don't even pretend that you haven't, it's pretty obvious."

So she shut up and was quiet, just stared back at him. Tai let out a long breath and tried to calm himself down. He paced back and forth for a moment, messed up his hair with his hands, looked anywhere but at her, and then spoke again, and his voice was quiet and hurt:

"I thought we were best friends."

And it wasn't until he had said it that he realised it was in past tense.

* * *

**Two chapters left to go! **

**We are really at the end now, people! About time, don't you think? Wheeee, confrontation! I love it! Haha, so… if you're spoiling for a fight, then be sure to check out the next chapter- should be out next week. Review please! emichii. **


	19. The Shouting and Screaming Championships

**Happy 2012, everyone! Yeah, I can't believe it either. This will officially be my 4th year writing this story. Can't believe it, still feels like I just started writing it. Anyway, sorry for the incredibly long wait as usual. Two chapters to go; let's hope I finish it before uni starts, eh? Read and review!**

Mimi was running late. Saturday, outside the cinema, 3 o'clock. It was already 3.15. It wasn't that she meant to be late, not because she wanted to spite him, or stand him up or make him wait- even though he was an insufferable blockhead.

She walked quickly down the sidewalk, brushing past the people, tried to push back the curls of pink hair that were falling out of her loose bun. As she crossed the road to the corner where the cinema was, her feet suddenly slowed and the nerves she'd been holding back rose up again. _Why was she so damn nervous? _She worried about the shoes she'd chosen, lifted up the back of her foot to inspect those thin heels. She slowed down outside the reflective windows of the department store, looked critically at herself there, pulled a face, tried to fix her hair.

She took a deep breath, in and out, tried to pull herself together, then turned towards the entrance.

**Chapter 19: The Shouting and Screaming Championships**

Matt had been standing alone in the lobby of the cinema for fifteen minutes. He could feel his confidence sinking as he watched another line of cinema-goers disappear into the theatre. There was something really awful about waiting alone for someone else; it was like putting yourself out there, hoping for someone that might not even turn up. And it felt worse surrounded by the chatter and groups of people situated all around him.

He didn't like this insecurity.

He put his hands on his hips, stared out of the entrance and looked for a glimpse of her pink hair. Then he sighed, and turned to sit on the small couch on the side of the lobby.

"You alone, cutie?"

He looked up expectantly, then swore at himself for being so hopeful. Fricking hell! Of course it wasn't Tachikawa; she would never call him that.

The girl standing beside him was hot, short skirt, high ponytail and all. It ran through Matt's head that her hair was not as long and wavy as Mimi's was. Then he shook his head to get that silly thought out of his mind.

He gave her a half-smile, unsure for some reason. "…maybe."

It wasn't his usual smart reply, not even his confident little smirk, but she wasn't discouraged at all. Instead, she sat down beside him, so close that her ponytail flicked across his face.

"Oh, sorry!" She turned and pulled an apologetic face.

"It's all right." He replied.

He looked upwards at the giant clock mounted on the dark cinema wall. He couldn't tell if it was the clock ticking down or his heart. The fear built up inside again, he didn't how to get rid of it. He shouldn't be this worried, he knew girls never stood him up, he'd never been this worried before, he didn't understand it- why was it just with _her_? He felt insecure, left wide open and alone.

"…what about you?"

"Huh?" The girl turned to him with surprise.

Matt smiled slyly. "Are you alone?"

The girl blushed. "I… I don't know. I could be."

"Just saying, I'd keep you company anytime you wanted,"

She giggled and then reached out a hand to push him playfully on the shoulder.

He raised his eyebrows at her, said in mock offense: "Hey, I don't go around pushing strangers."

"…well, are you going to tell me your name or…?" She reached out to poke him again.

"Hey, if you can't keep your hands to yourself," Matt bent closer to her and whispered, "I'll hold them for you."

She practically squealed and so ensured a playful shoving event on the couch.

And that was how Mimi found them when she entered the cinema.

"Oh." was all she said.

Matt and the girl looked up to see her standing in front of the small couch. Matt's face paled. His fingers were still entangled with the girl's- it had been some kind of flirtatious wrestling going on.

Her facial expression remained perfectly blank and well-composed. She held her handbag by the straps in front of her, looked Matt straight in the eyes and said politely: "Sorry for interrupting."

Then she turned and bolted from the scene.

"Tachikawa!" Matt pulled away from the other girl and swore aloud as he pushed himself off the couch and gave chase. "TACHIKAWA! Wait-"

But the pink-haired girl was already disappearing into the crowd of people across the street. Matt didn't look before crossing the road, and almost went death at the bleating of car horns as he tripped over to the pavement on the other side.

All he saw was her wavy pink hair floating in the air from her speed. But he didn't want to see her back; he wanted to see her face.

* * *

"I thought we were best friends."

Sora felt her stomach drop and suddenly there seemed to be an empty gap in there, right in the middle of her chest- like something had been taken out and was missing. Definitely missing. She stood there, a few steps away from him, stared at him with wide red eyes.

She didn't know what to say. "…we are." She attempted half-heartedly.

"No. We're not." Tai spoke out, surprisingly harshly. "And- and…" He faltered for a moment, dropped his gaze from her face, unsure of how to continue. "And if we are, you sure as heck aren't acting like it."

"I haven't been-" She automatically grew defensive.

"Yes, you bloody have!" Tai exclaimed.

She didn't answer to this. Just looked painfully to the side, was silent. Tai let out a long sigh and glared down at the concrete between them, his fists were clenched at his sides.

The silence was deafening. The streets surrounding them were empty this afternoon, and the courtyards held nothing but the fallen leaves on the ground that floated along with the slight breeze.

"…I have hardly seen you at all in the last week." Tai said quietly. "You don't come to wake me up in the mornings anymore; we don't walk to school together. At school, you don't even look at me, and we never talk anymore- and no, before you argue, those greetings in the corridor don't count. We don't hang out anymore, you don't even reply to my texts."

Sora breathed in heavily, squeezed her eyes shut, tried to hold in her hurting heart in much the same way.

"…I don't know if we are even friends anymore, let alone best friends."

And he didn't mean to make it sound as cold and harsh as it did, but those were his honest feelings. And Sora lifted up her head to look at Tai, try to read the expression on his face, but all she saw were his dark pained brown eyes.

Sora noticed the strange shivering of his right hand, held at his side and she wanted to reach out and grab it, hold it steady.

Tai took in a deep breath, looked Sora straight in the eyes. "If we're not friends anymore, you could've at least let me know."

And those words hurt so much. Without meaning to, she felt her eyes sting and her vision begin to blur. She looked up at her former best friend, tried to see the kindness on his carefree face like she remembered it, but it wasn't there anymore. She'd taken it away, hadn't she?

"We're friends!" She burst out, louder and more emotional than she wanted. And she blinked hard, tried to clear the wetness from her eyes. "We're friends, Taichi Kamiya, and you know it!"

"Well, you sure as hell fooled me!" He retorted, and then she noticed that he too was fighting back tears.

"It's… it's-" There were no excuses, nothing. She needed to move it- the guilt, the responsibility to someone else- preferably to him. That was what she had always done in the past, hadn't she? It had been so easy to blame Tai all the time- because that was who she was- short-tempered, feisty and indignant. And back then, she knew Tai would run all over the place to listen to her, let her step all over him- because back then- back then he'd been in love with her.

"M-maybe you're the one who got it mixed up in the first place!" She shouted, and she knew it was a low blow but she said it anyway: "Best friends aren't the way you imagined it, okay? We don't have to walk to school together all the time; you don't have to fill my inbox with all your damn text messages and we don't have to hang out and eat ice cream together every day of the week!"

Tai looked like he'd been slapped. The anger was gone from his face and now he just stared at her with wide brown eyes.

Sora's voice caught in her throat, she could hear the tears in her hoarse voice. "…it's not the same, okay, Tai? It's not the same anymore!"

"…why then? I don't get it!" Tai was thoroughly confused, "Why is it different now?"

Sora pulled her gaze away from Tai and sighed heavily, covered her face with her hands. "Because you have a girlfriend."

Tai's frown deepened, "I don't see how-"

Sora stared at him, "It's not right, Tai. It's not fair to Catherine if you spend more time with me than with her. She's your girlfriend."

"Okay, okay!" Tai said. "But that doesn't mean you have to ignore me and treat me like I don't exist! Even if that's the case, it doesn't give you any reason to not return my texts- to not even give me an explanation as to why you don't want to be friends anymore!"

"It's not because I don't want to be friends!" Sora burst out, and it was too late because the tears were rolling down her face.

_I want to be friends. I want to be friends with you so badly. If I could only think of you as a friend, then this wouldn't be so hard. _

"Fine." Tai said abruptly. "Fine." His voice was tight and he had to swallow back the tears as he spoke. "Then at least tell me when it started- how it started. When we stopped being best friends."

_Really? You really want to know that? _Sora looked up at the face of her former best friend and grimaced. "I thought for sure you'd already know."

Tai just stared straight back at her, his face was dark and serious.

Sora wiped her tears on her sleeve. "We stopped being best friends when you told me you liked me."

"…but- but you're the one who said it was okay!" Tai exclaimed, his face heating up. "I was the one worried about what would happen, and you assured me we could stay friends and that nothing would change!"

"I know! I was wrong, okay?"

"But-"

Sora brushed desperately at the tears running down her face, her eyes were now rimmed with red, and her face was flushed with anger and frustration. "I was wrong, Tai! I'm not always right, okay? Can't I make mistakes sometimes?"

Tai was silent, just stood watching her. Sora breathed slowly, tried to collect her thoughts, calm herself down.

"…I made a mistake, okay?" She said, and her voice went smaller and softer. "If it didn't happen, then it wouldn't be like this. I just- I…"

She couldn't work out what she was trying to say. None of her arguments had made sense, not in her head, not when she said them out loud. She didn't even know anymore.

Tai wasn't angry anymore, just puzzled, sad. She found herself smiling ironically, because that clueless expression of his was what she had always liked best.

"…what mistake?" he asked.

She bit her lip, crossed her arms across her chest, turned away from him. Stubborn, angry again. Just like always.

"Sora!" Tai insisted. "What happened? Tell me!"

"…I liked you too! I've always liked you from the very beginning, okay?" Sora exclaimed.

Tai just stared.

Sora glanced at him bitterly and then ducked her head, cried even harder, the tears flowing freely now.

"Are you happy now?" She demanded. "I liked you, okay? I've liked you for bloody forever, Tai!"

* * *

"TACHIKAWA!" Matt yelled, racing down the street, crashing through the pedestrians. He swore, pushed himself to run faster. "Tachikawa, wait, dammit!"

Mimi could hear his shouts from behind her, but she didn't care anymore, didn't care, didn't care.

Matt pushed himself further one stretch; she was just within his reach. They were going past the entrance to the underground arcade now; the square was busy and full of people. He didn't care, reached out and grabbed her arm.

She turned around, spat out: "Let go of me, Ishida! Leave me alone!"

He clung on tighter. "No! No, I won't-"

Her voice was shaky. "Haven't you done enough already? If you didn't want to go out with me, then why did you ask?"

"I'm sorry!" Matt exclaimed. "Really. Really, Tachikawa- Mimi, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that, I was a dick- I _am_ a dick. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."

Mimi glared at him. "What did you mean then? What did you mean when you said you wanted one more chance? Why did you ask me out today? Why did you act like that with the other girl? I just- You've always-" She felt tears prick in her eyes. "I just don't understand you at all, Ishida! I don't know what you want with me!"

Matt's grip on her arm loosened as Mimi started to shake uncontrollably. Her face screwed up as if she was about to cry and her pink curls that were now messed up from running fell in front of her face.

"If you don't like me, then leave me alone!" She cried. "That's how you've always acted at school, you bully me and you insult me everyday! When I had a chance with Shin, you took it away from me. You're always in the way. You ruin my life, Yamato Ishida, and I don't understand why you can't just leave me alone if you hate me so much, why?"

"I don't hate you!" Matt shouted.

She looked at him tearily. He sighed, frowned hard. "I… I don't know either, okay." He muttered. "I just… I think about you all the time. And I get irritated whenever you're with Shin. It frustrates the hell out of me when I see you walk through the corridors with your stupidly pretty pink hair flying behind you because I know you're the one girl who never looks at me. I don't- I really don't, Mimi, I don't hate you at all."

Mimi sniffed, looked away from him.

"…I've had a lot of time to figure it out, but I'm an idiot so I keep stuffing up. It- I just-" Matt stared at Mimi, tried to explain himself, let out: "I don't hate you at all, I like you!"

She stared at him, wide-eyed, incredulous look on her face.

Matt's face burnt. "Don't look at me like that, dammit! I know, I can't believe it either, falling for someone like you! I like you, Tachikawa; I really, really like you. So I… I don't know what to do!"

Mimi breathed in and out shallowly, looked critically at Matt's face for a hint of truth.

"I get scared, okay?" He said, "I get scared because I've never felt like this about anyone else before! So when… so when you don't turn up, I feel insecure. I feel insecure about myself, about what I'm worth and I try to distract myself by flirting with other girls. Because you're different from them, and it scares me so much how I feel about you- I just- I just try to pretend it's nothing by acting stupid with other girls."

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Mimi spoke up. "You're too scared of being vulnerable. I don't want to hear your excuses, Ishida!"

"But-"

"It's always like this, isn't it?" She cried. "Just because I'm late. Because you can't wait. Because you always have to have what you want straight away, whenever you ask. Even if it was just a few minutes, you can't wait, because you can't bear to be vulnerable, even for a moment. You don't think about anyone else- you're too obsessed with being curled up in that little shell of yours- you can't stand being alone. Because you and your stupid inflated ego mean so much more to you than anyone else! It's just impossible, isn't it?"

"What?"

"It's impossible. It's impossible for this to work out." She pulled her gaze away from him, tried unsuccessfully to tug her arm away but he held on tighter. "I don't even know. I don't even know why I wasted so much time on you. I don't know why on earth I chose you over him."

Matt's eyes widened. "…what?"

"It doesn't even matter anymore." She said bitterly. "Let go of me, Ishida."

"Tachika- Mimi, listen please. I told you I was sorry! Just one more chance, all right?"

"One more chance! I already gave you one! And that's what you did with it," She started to turn away and Matt's hand loosened on her arm.

"No, wait, Mimi!" She was already disappearing. Matt let out a huge sigh, his mind was racing for anything he could say, anything he could do to fix things, but Mimi had been right, it was too late, too late.

"Mimi!" He shouted out again, "I-" His pulse was racing faster than ever, he grasped at anything he could possibly do. "I- dammit, I'LL WAIT!" He screamed out after her. "I'll wait for you, I promise! It doesn't matter if you don't turn up, I'm going to stay right here and wait until you come back!"

"I'm not coming back!" Her voice was far away.

"Then I'm not moving!" He retorted. "I'll stay right here and wait. And I won't talk to anyone else, no girls, nobody."

"Just leave me alone!" She turned and screamed out. "You've… you've done enough already!" And then she was gone.

She could hear his cries and protests dying away behind her, but she didn't care. He wouldn't keep his word, he never did. She didn't stop running until she got home, and by then her tears had already dried up.

Her feet hurt from all the running, her ankles ached. And she knew she hadn't chosen the right shoes after all.

* * *

"I liked you, okay? I've liked you for bloody forever, Tai!"

Tai stood there, watching Sora in front of him. She was crying. Her shoulders were hunched up and she was really sobbing, sniffing uncontrollably.

And all Tai could think was how beautiful she was, how small and endearing she was.

"Sora…" he started, but didn't even know what to say. He wanted to reach out to touch her, to touch her shivering arm, steady her somehow. But all this time he'd spent withdrawing his fingers from even the slightest touch of her had affected him too much. He was still scared.

But if… if Sora had made a mistake. If Sora had lied to him all those times, then... then so had he. He never should've… he shouldn't have left her like this. He shouldn't have smiled so hard and pretended everything was okay between them, when all this time he'd been hurting inside. He shouldn't have dated Catherine when it meant nothing to him. But even that- even doing that, all along it had been for her anyway.

"…I'm sorry." Sora whimpered. "I'm sorry, Tai. I… I've ruined everything."

"No," Tai's voice was just as remorseful. "It was my fault first. I was the one who said I liked you, and screwed it all up."

She gave him a withering look. "How do you know it was you first? Just because I never said anything doesn't mean I didn't already have feelings for you!"

He smiled lop-sidedly. "…really?"

They stood and looked at each other through misty eyes for what felt like eternity. The silence was heavy on their shoulders; they weren't sure what to do next. Then Tai bit his lip and reached out to grab Sora by the hand.

And that was all he did, even though all he wanted so much to throw his arms around her small shoulders, hug her tightly and never let go. But it was too scary to move forward from this strange state of friendship they were in.

"…Tai? Sora?" A meek voice spoke out, cutting into the silence between them.

They looked up, startled, turned to see who it was.

"Wh-what's going on?"

It was Catherine.

* * *

**Oh Matt. Y U SO STUPID? And as for all those flirty pick-up lines he and the girl used in that early conversation- I have no idea where it came from. I didn't know I had it in me. Haha. Anyway, next chapter is the last one! Ooooohhh! Look forward to it! Thankyou for putting up with me so long! Reviews are very very welcome! **


	20. It's okay, 'cause you're here now

…**sigh. Last chapter, guys. Stay with me! **

**Chapter 20: It's okay, 'cause you're here now.**

It was late afternoon, and Catherine had obviously just been coming over to visit Sora. So imagine her surprise when she found both her good friend and her boyfriend standing outside the apartments.

Tai and Sora looked at her, obviously startled. Tai's hand was outstretched, holding onto Sora's.

Catherine's breath caught in her throat.

Almost as if he had been shocked, Tai let go of Sora's hand.

Catherine's eyes narrowed, heat rose to her cheeks and tears started to prick up. Her gaze drifted from Tai to Sora and then settled on the now empty space between them- where their hands had been before.

"I…" her voice faltered, who was she even going to accuse? She couldn't bear to look at Tai, because she liked him, she _really _liked him. She glanced up at Sora, "I don't… I thought- why…?"

Tai opened his mouth as if to explain, but there was nothing to say, he was as confused as she was.

Catherine's gaze fixed on Sora's. She didn't need to say anything because Sora could already read them in her friend's eyes. _I thought you were my friend. _

And then her eyes overfilled with tears and with a strangled sob, she turned on her heels and ran.

"Catherine!" Tai shouted and turned to chase after her.

Catherine didn't turn around; she didn't react to Tai's voice, just darted around the corner and down the street. Tai went after her. Sora stared at his retreating back.

And then she was lost. Somewhere in between reverie and reality, as if she'd just pressed the pause button on her own life. Her heart hurt. It really hurt. Her left hand still tingled from Tai's touch.

The tears rolled down her cheeks, but she couldn't be bothered to wipe them away. It was too much effort. Everything was always an effort, wasn't it? It hurt because she hated it; she hated seeing Tai run after Catherine like that, seeing her best friend disappearing just like that. And she knew it would end up like the movies, wouldn't it? The guy would chase after the girl and patch everything up. And they'd end with an embrace and a kiss, the camera panning around them at all angles before zooming out to show the audience the beautiful scenery around them.

She took in sharp breath, walked around the corner and started to run.

* * *

He was lying, wasn't he?

There was no way Matt would stay there, wait out there at the square surrounded by all the shops and streets and pretty girls. No way. He was just bluffing. As usual.

But it was late now, and Mimi bit her lip, looking out the window of her room at how the sky had darkened and the lights of the city were turning on. He couldn't _still _be out there, could he? It would be getting chilly by now and Matt wouldn't stand for the indignity of spending the night on a park bench.

Despite herself, Mimi was worried about him. She considered going back to check on him, but her pride wouldn't be able to take it if he wasn't there- and surely, he would've left by now. Mimi bit her lip, heard the sound of her own pulse quickening. Her mind flipped through all the dramatic things that could happen tomorrow, newspaper articles with headlines that said things like BOY DIES OF BROKEN HEART or BOY MURDERED ON STREET or BOY WRITES LOVE LETTER ON CEMENT WITH OWN BLOOD BEFORE DYING. Damn, she was a drama-queen as always.

She felt the pull to go outside, to find him, to at least check whether that park bench was empty but she forced her feet to stay put. She watched the lights of the city flick on, how the buildings turned black in the nighttime. Then she sighed and pulled the curtain closed.

* * *

_I'm selfish._

She knew that.

That was why she was running.

To talk to Catherine herself. To stop Catherine and Tai being together. To fix things up with Tai. Somehow.

Yeah, she was selfish. It was always about her, wasn't it? She couldn't bear to have Catherine break off their friendship like that; she didn't want to be thought of as a traitor. She was jealous and she couldn't stand it if Tai and Catherine emerged back at school on Monday together and smiling like the fairy-tale couple they had always seemed to be.

Her breathing was ragged and it felt like her heart was hitting the ground heavily every time she took another step. Up ahead, she could vaguely catch a glimpse of Tai's dark brown hair. She pushed herself to run faster.

She found that it hurt seeing Tai run after Catherine so desperately. Because she always remembered how Tai used to do that for her.

Man, she was selfish. Sora caught up to Tai who had slowed down. Catherine had stopped a bit further ahead, tired.

"Sora-" He said, startled, noticing she was there.

"…I'll talk to her," she said.

Tai looked at her, really looked at her. She found herself shrinking under his intense gaze. She looked away from him, "You should go home. …this is my fault. We'll… I'll talk to you tomorrow."

He looked like he might object. And Sora was hurting still, and confused and upset, she really couldn't have any confrontation with him again. But he understood. Tai gave her a rueful smile and left.

Catherine had stopped near the park. She was hiccupping, breathing heavily from her run. Sora walked towards her. Catherine looked up but Sora couldn't read the expression on her face, whether it was hurt or sad or angry.

"I'm sorry," she started.

Catherine looked at Sora through teary eyes.

"…I like Tai." Sora was surprised at how loud and confident her voice was suddenly. It was a simple fact she had never admitted, never spoken aloud.

Catherine didn't say anything, so Sora took advantage of her silence to explain herself, to tell her the truth. But for some reason as she talked it felt like she was explaining to herself as well as to Catherine.

"I… I don't want you to misunderstand anything, Catherine, Tai never cheated on you. He's always been the perfect boyfriend there could be," Sora said seriously, "He tried his best everyday, he put so much effort into the presents he bought you, he always looked out for you, he-"

"I know," Catherine interrupted, her face breaking into a little smile.

Sora's voice broke, her words falling to pieces. "…it's just my fault- I… I like him too. And I never should've kept it from you, I never should've kept it from him- I've- I've hurt a whole lot of people, and I've messed everything up. I thought that I could bear it but I really-"

"It's not your fault!"

Sora blinked, looked over at Catherine, who had suddenly exclaimed out loud.

"I shouldn't have made you help me. I was selfish, I know. I knew from the beginning that the one Tai liked wasn't me, but I still made him go out with me. I knew that I was taking advantage of your friendship with Tai, but I still pushed you into it. It must've been hard for you but…" Catherine's voice trembled and then she burst into a fresh round of tears, "…I just- I just really, _really _liked him…!"

And Sora was running to her, her own tears rolling down her cheeks, and throwing her arms around her hurting friend. And it was odd, all those invisible barriers between them, all the mistakes and lies to themselves and to each other, it didn't matter anymore. They were just two good friends holding onto each other for dear life, needing a shoulder to cry on, needing someone who understood.

Catherine sniffed. "…I knew you liked him, Sora."

Sora was barely able to mutter out the words. "How?"

Catherine couldn't help smiling. "It's Tai. How could you not love him?"

* * *

Matt's back ached. The ridges of the wooden park bench had been digging into his back all night long and he swore that he was sleeping on a bed of nails. And take that back, he hadn't slept at all. Just kind of laid there for the last five hours or so.

After Mimi had left, he'd hung around in the square for a while, biding his time, waiting for her to come back. He'd loitered around the nearby shops so much that the shopkeeper threatened to call the police on him. Then he'd just sat there all afternoon, watching the people around him disappear until he was the only one left.

Some girls had tried to talk to him, as usual. It was odd, because for once he didn't even want to respond. His thoughts had been elsewhere.

Matt sighed and tried to roll over. He leant his head on one of his arms, looking out into the street around him, the muted blues and dim lighting. Before, the first few hours he'd been certain she'd come back. He would even try to act cool at all times, seated nonchalantly there so that when she came back, she'd catch him aloof and in control. Then as the minutes and hours ticked by, he'd felt his hope deteriorating.

_I guess I deserve it, huh._

He peeked out at the outside world through half-closed eyelids. He was groggy and disoriented, the night had really sucked. He hadn't slept, simply drifted between the lines of wakefulness and dreams. He'd managed to go through a lot of the crap on his mind. It scared him how much of his dreams and disillusioned thoughts were occupied by _her._

He'd never been so happy to see daylight appear. He wanted to move, but felt like his body was frozen numb and he wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from his awkward sleeping position. He looked at the dull blue-green light blurry in front of him, he felt the first light rays of morning sunlight. He guessed it was barely even five in the morning.

"Morning."

It was a quiet voice, but he almost fell off the bench. Startled, he sat up in a hurry, banging his back painfully against the bench and pulling a muscle in his numb leg.

Mimi was standing there, at the end of the park bench. The early morning sunlight streamed down from behind her, seeming to make her glow. The light hit the curves of the wavy pink hair that fell down her shoulders.

She looked like an angel.

Matt stared. He must really be losing it, he thought, the terrible night outside and this whole stupid situation was getting the better of him and really he should just-

The angel spoke.

"You're an idiot."

Matt stared. Blinked a couple of times. Then he smiled weakly.

"I know. I'm sorry."

Mimi looked at him critically. His gaze didn't drift away from hers at all. He said nothing, just held her stare, his blue eyes seeming to grow serious.

Eventually Mimi broke the staring contest and with a sigh sat down on little empty space at the end of the bench. Matt had to hurriedly curl his legs up to avoid being sat on. Then he struggled to sit up straight and shuffled over so that he was sitting next to her.

He was aware of how his hair must be atrocious and his face gross from sleep-deprived and how his clothes must be-

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

He looked in surprise over at Mimi, who was getting to her feet. She smiled.

Despite himself, despite being in such a mess, despite the crappy night, despite the cold, Matt found himself smiling back.

* * *

She didn't talk to him the next day. Sora was a bloody liar.

Tai stared at his silent phone, waiting for a message or a call of some sort but nothing ever came. He wondered how things with Catherine had turned out, and made a mental note to break things off properly with her at school tomorrow. He whiled away his time on Sunday; called Matt a few times to see if he wanted to hang out, but his calls kept hitting his inbox. Tai was surprised and wondered if maybe Matt had found a girlfriend that could occupy all of his short attention span.

His heart still beat funny from yesterday and all that had happened. It was hard to believe it, really. Him and Sora had felt the same way about each other all along? He couldn't tell if it was fear or excitement in his stomach. He lay awake that night, trying to muddle through the thoughts in his head.

It was with these same thoughts that he drifted off to troubled sleep, constantly with Sora in his dreams and his worries over what this all meant for their friendship. If only it was possible that dreaming about a person made it easier to reach them in real life.

No such luck. All he heard was the sound of his sister screaming at him.

"_Tai!" _

Tai groaned and buried deeper under his covers, tried to muffle Kari's voice but putting his pillow over his head.

"_Tai! Dammit, Tai!" _

Why did his dreams suck just as much as his days did?

"TAI!"

The pillow and his blankets were ripped off from on top of him in one go and Tai moaned as he opened his eyes to see his little sister standing beside his bed with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.

"What do you want, sis?" He mumbled.

"What do _I _want?" Kari said incredously. "For crying out loud, Tai, get out of here already! You're going to be late to school!"

Tai swore and leapt out of bed. Throwing on his clothes and stumbling out his room, all he heard behind him was Kari muttering: "I don't know what she sees in him."

The words didn't click in his mind until he was down in the kitchen, putting on his school shoes. _"She?" It couldn't be-_

"Oh Tai, you're awake," Mrs Kamiya greeted her son. "You know that-"

"Yeah, see ya, Mum!" He shouted and pushed the front door open to leave.

He wasn't entirely sure as he ran down the corridor towards the elevator, but he couldn't help his heart thumping louder and harder in his chest. It was almost hard to breathe, standing there, waiting for the flashing light to reach the number of his floor.

_Ah, screw it! _He turned abruptly and decided to go down the stairs. He held his breath down all fourteen flights of steps, rushing out into the foyer and then out into the bright sunlight, his eyes darting everywhere, looking, hoping, _praying_.

Sora was standing outside the apartment complex, looking at her watch. She looked up at the sound of his footsteps and her face was shy, almost embarrassed as if not knowing what to do.

Tai couldn't breathe, all that running was killing him. He panted heavily, bending over, resting his hands on his knees, unable to talk, unable to tell her exactly how much he'd wanted to see her.

"…Tai." Sora said, her eyes wide. "I meant to-"

"It's okay," he managed, catching his breath and straightening up. "It's all right now."

"I know I should've called or talked to you yesterday but-"

"It's all right," Tai repeated.

And Sora could only stare as he grinned that dear goofy smile at her. "It's okay, 'cause you're here now."

* * *

"You know there's something I've been wondering for a long time now," said Tai to his group of guy friends sitting round the cafeteria table.

"Yeah?" Matt looked casually over at his buddy.

Tai frowned slightly as he scratched the back of his head. "Ages ago, you mentioned that everyone but me was either fine with girls or in a relationship. But you never told me how Izzy belonged in that group."

Izzy's face paled.

Matt's face brightened, while Davis started to choke on his food from laughter.

"Eh, you still haven't told Tai?" TK cried, "What a laugh!"

"Shut up!" Izzy snapped, his face heating up now. "It's not even funny!"

"Tai, listen up, mate, that girlfriend that Izzy had-" Matt started, his grin deepening across his face. "She's-"

Izzy took off down the corridor, running as fast as his legs could carry him, holding his hands up to his ears to block what Matt was yelling down the corridor at him.

"-an online girlfriend from an MMORPG!"

* * *

The way home was awkward for both of them.

They weren't sure if there was an etiquette for this, for a boy and a girl who were best friends, who liked each other, who presumably should be dating by now, but weren't exactly sure where to start or if they even wanted to start.

Someone once brought up the point that the boyfriend should walk the girlfriend home and maybe even to school. But both Tai and Sora knew that Sora lived further away so it really didn't make sense, and practicality beat out romance.

"Um, so… does that mean we're going out now?" Tai managed to ask, his face bright red.

Sora stopped and looked at him. "Do you think we are?"

Tai stumbled clumsily over his words, as he always had, the lovable dork he was. "Well, we like each other so maybe we…"

Sora tried to fight back her smile as Tai paused and tried to construct his thoughts.

"…but I guess then maybe we already are- but I don't really know- but what does a boyfriend and girlfriend do anyway that's different from just seeing each other all the time-"

"Tai."

He stopped and glanced at her.

She smiled. "We don't have to rush or anything. I don't believe in names and so-called dating etiquette or whatever. I think… being together with you and knowing that you feel the same already makes me as happy as I can be."

Tai stared and a blush rushed across his face. "…yeah. Me too." He added hoarsely. "I just get nervous, 'cause I really like you and we're together now but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to act, if us being best friends first changes anything and what I'm supposed to do-"

Sora held a finger up to her lips to shush him. Tai was silent.

She grinned and then held out her schoolbag to him. "You can carry my bag."

"Um, okay-"

And she went on as she started walking off ahead of him. "And you can copy extra notes for me in class and carry my books to the library and-"

"That's not being a boyfriend! That's called being a slave!" Tai cried, chasing after her.

Sora lowered her gaze and smiled to herself as she listened to Tai's protests and his footsteps coming closer. She stopped abruptly when he had caught up to her.

"Fine. Then you can hold this for me."

Tai looked down at where Sora was holding out her hand.

Then he smiled as he reached out to take her hand in his.

"I can do that."

**The End.**

* * *

**What's this? Finished on Valentine's Day? HELL YEAH! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! **

**And thankyou, THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR READING! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed and especially those who have been following this for the last four years. I'm so grateful! Who knows, maybe someday we will meet again! I sure hope so! **

**-emichii**


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